Mortgage Genie and Nationwide

irs101

I've recently remortgaged using Mortgage Genie, having read Martin's article, and thought there may be others who would be interested in how it went.

My 2 year tracker discount with Yorkshire BS came to an end in June. I had thought through very carefully which new mortgage we wanted and, without going into all the reasons, went for the slightly more expensive (but imho very good value) option of the Nationwide lifetime tracker (0.18% over base), having discounted my first choice, the Woolwich lifetime tracker, because they wouldn't take my wife's income into account because she is on maternity leave.

Armed with all my information I went onto the Mortgage Genie site to get an illustration - which came back extremely quickly. The application form was e-mailed to me and I applied as quickly as possible. (Because of a new arrival in the family I hadn't got round to remortgaging quite as sharply as I might have done).

Simon at Mortgage Genie was readily available on the phone and advised me about several points of our application (buildings insurance, repayment vehicles and the implications of my wife being on maternity leave) and it all proved to be very good advice, because my application sailed through Nationwide's processes. Simon clearly knows how Nationwide operates very well.

Should also mention Nationwide's performance. I think that I was lucky that our application was handled by their premier unit. They even phoned me up on a Saturday to sort out a few details on the application. All very easy.

The (free) legal work was farmed out to a firm of solicitors. They were OK, but had a tendency to write lots of letters rather than pick up the phone to sort out small points. Minor annoyances - like losing a fax and not sorting out the final payment figure for YBS until very late and incurring me an unnecessary £25 fee in the process. They were the main source of hold-up.

From the point I first contacted Mortgage Genie, it took 36 days to complete and my £450 rebate has now been paid into my bank account. I would definitely recommend Mortgage Genie (and Nationwide for that matter) with the same caveat that are well rehearsed here: the Mortgage Genie rebate option is for execution-only. They do not give advice on which mortgage to go for, so you MUST have a clear idea of which mortgage you want and why you want it. If your circumstances are anything less than straightforward, it may not be the right option for you. The only complication on our application was the maternity leave issues, and I did a lot of research and talking to Nationwide and other banks/BS's before even applying.

Hope this is helpful.

irs

KTF

If you didnt already know you can now sign up for the Nationwide online banking and see all the details of your mortgage. It gets updated every time you make a payment so you can see it reduce in 'real time' rather than waiting for the statement once a year.

Btw, did the Nationwide use a firm of solicitors in Swindon - they did when I remortaged with them as well and I also found them on the slow side.