Are HSBC really slow?

tonyfu

Applied online for a 50k mortgage on 23rd October and had a telephone interview with them on 26th Oct. Have returned all their paperwork to them within a day or two of receiving it. On 10th Nov. I was told over the phone that our application was with the credit underwriting dept and we should know in 5-7 days if we've been approved for the mortgage. I rang again today (7 days later) and was given a similar response, "Your application is with the credit underwriting dept but nobody has started working on it yet, can't give you any timescale . . . "

I rang back later today to ask who I could make a written complaint to, only to be told to write to the manager of the credit underwriting dept!

Has anybody had any recent experience of applying for a mortgage with HSBC?

The people in the chain above and below us are wanting to move quickly and we're holding things up, should we continue to wait for HSBC or start again with a different mortgage provider?

Very grateful for any thoughts, advice or suggestions.

Tony

twobuckchuck

Hi Tony,

This is not good news, i sent my application off late last week and was planning to start chasing them up on Friday if i hadn't heard anything, that doesn't sound likely now!!

Hope it goes well for you

John

Thrugelmir

tonyfu wrote: »

The people in the chain above and below us are wanting to move quickly and we're holding things up,

Stay patient. The situation is outside your control. So don't be pressurised by other parties. Its unlikely you'll complete by Xmas now either.

Lenders only have limited tranches of funds to advance within any given time period. So sometimes there will be delays in the application process.

SnowWhiterThanWhite

I had a similar experience, got really frustrated when no-one could could give me an actual decision
Eventually, called First Direct. What a difference! I got agreement in principle on the first call, offer letters within 3 days and my mortgage has just been drawn down....a total of 3 weeks!

tonyfu

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Stay patient. The situation is outside your control. So don't be pressurised by other parties. Its unlikely you'll complete by Xmas now either.

It's unlikely that we'll have a decision from HSBC before Xmas at this rate! It would be easier to be patient if they could provide a timescale for giving us a decision.

At the moment there's a significant risk that we could lose the buyers for our house because of this delay with no light at the end of the HSBC tunnel.

Tony

tonyfu

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Eventually, called First Direct. What a difference! I got agreement in principle on the first call, offer letters within 3 days and my mortgage has just been drawn down....a total of 3 weeks!

Wow! That's amazing service, think I'll have a look at their mortgages, thanks very much for the info.

Tony

p.s. did First Direct do a house survey within this timescale? I guess they must have done, but that seems incredibly fast!

tonyfu

twobuckchuck wrote: »

This is not good news, i sent my application off late last week and was planning to start chasing them up on Friday if i hadn't heard anything, that doesn't sound likely now!!

John, did you apply online and have you received a plastic folder from HSBC with a pile of paperwork in it yet?

Tony

tonyfu

Just noticed that First Direct do a mortgage that is very similar to the one we applied for at HSBC (2 year fixed rate, repayment, with a £99 fee) but also just noticed that they are part of HSBC!!!

Tony

tonyfu

We filed a complaint via hsbc website on 18th Nov, about the delay and inconsistent information that we were being given by different staff at hsbc. Credit underwriting dept rang us the following day. They agreed our mortgage in principle and were very keen to know if that was sufficient to satisfy the issues that were identified in our complaint!

Tony :j

SnowWhiterThanWhite

tonyfu wrote: »

Wow! That's amazing service, think I'll have a look at their mortgages, thanks very much for the info.

Tony

p.s. did First Direct do a house survey within this timescale? I guess they must have done, but that seems incredibly fast!

Because I have a low LTV, I paid £99 for a 'walk by' valuation, which was done within a week & I also received a copy of the full valuation within a week.

SnowWhiterThanWhite

tonyfu wrote: »

Just noticed that First Direct do a mortgage that is very similar to the one we applied for at HSBC (2 year fixed rate, repayment, with a £99 fee) but also just noticed that they are part of HSBC!!!

Tony

I Know! However, from a customer service point of view, FD win hands down, also, when I first approached FD, I explained that I had already applied to HSBC & was disappointed with their service & lack of response, and I also enquired whether their lending criteria was the same, and was assured that it was not!

(Totally crap service from HSBC bearing in mind that my existing mortgages were already with them on various fixed rates averaging around 6%, and yet they queried affordability even though the new mortgage deal would have saved me mearly £200 per month!!)