BEWARE Barclays/ Woolwich Mortgages!!

1mozzie

DO NOT DO A MORTAGE APPLICATION WITH BARCLAYS/ THE WOOLWICH! It is not worth the long-drawn out nightmare!

I have had a nightmare doing a re-mortgage application with Barclays / The Woolwich.
We have 3 address variations on our property (a legacy from address changes done by previous owners) and Barclays where complelely incompetant in being able to take this into account, even though we haven't had a problem for 3 years and experian are able to link them all together.
So they ended up doing 5 credit checks on me!!! the second of which was completely unauthorised by me and the rest was their mistake (spelling, typing in wrong address). I am seriously contesting. Please don't put yourself through this nightmare and go with anyone else just not them! you have been warned!

grogdog

they are dire unless everything goes through fast track. plus it is nearly impossible to book the funds with them and the worst customer service in the world.

Meeper

Ah, the benefits of having an experienced adviser to fight these battles on your behalf.....

Wakey2008

And Barclays/Woolwich will send all you personal details out to be processed in India.

Cheap labour = poorly underwritten mortgage.

Many companies use call centres in India for general queries, but to my knowledge Barclays are the only company that actually allows these underpaid workers to underwrite mortgages and make lending decisions.

It's a good few years now since I worked for Barclays/Woolwich, but back then these Indian workers had no grasp how the UK financial market or house buying process works but were still making decisions that would impact on people's lives. I doubt it's changed.

2nd_Time_Lucky

Had no problems whatsoever taking out our mortgage with them last year - got a great deal :money: and was ready in a week to complete our purchase

Wh05apk

Woolwich are either very good or very bad, there is no middle ground with them, but in fairness, they are not "much" worse than anybody else.

Burridge60

Haven't been that bad for my customers. Pedantic careful and wary Of money laundering but any bank would be after the fines dis
hed out lately.

Mike_parsonnage

Two situations with them over the years .

(1) Was getting letters from them sent to my address in someone elses name, I did not have a mortgage with them and returned the letters with ( not know at this address on the enverlope ) . The letters still came , so one day I opened one . The person they were writting to was in arrears on their mortgage , so I phoned Woolwich and explained they had the wrong address. It took a lot of explaining for them to accept that their customer did not live at my address. Letters still arrived and it took another phone call for Woolwich to get the message.

(2) A few years later I took a mortgage with them myself . I had a cheque book mortgage and one day decided to withdraw funds , so phoned and asked how much I could withdraw. They gave me a figure and I withdrew an amount under the maximum allowed. A few weeks later I got an arrears letter, the amount they stated did not take into account interest to be added that month. So I gone slightly over the limit. This letter was printed in great big bold underlined words YOU ARE IN ARREARS ect stamped all over it . Unaware of why I had gone into arrears I phoned spoke to an advisor who when I gave them my account number spoke to me like sh-t saying I was in arrears and had to speak to an arrears advisor . When I got thorough to him he said yes happens all the time the computer system does not pick up the point that if you phone after you have made the monthly payment but before they add interest for the month done on different days you will get a higher figure than is allowed by the time the interest is added . He asked why I was so upset and I explained that untill they got their system to take interest for the month into account they should refrain form sending such offensive letters and the woman I had first spoken to should not speak to people like they are shi-t. He explained that in future to ask for an amount and then take the montly interst off if it was prior to such a date . I said I would never use the facility again. I phoned Barclays who I bank with who credited £25 to my current account and apploigiesed for Woolwich sloopy service.

Wh05apk

Mike,

The first point about incorrect address, if you were chasing someone for money, and sent a letter, which came back "not known" would you just let it lie? of course you wouldn't that is th oldest trick in the book, for debtors trying to "dissapear" Barclays naturally are going to keep chasing unti they are certain they have the correct address, they are alsoa large organisation, so things like this take will take a while to filter through.

With regards your point re the drawdown, this is a known problem with this, which I agree needs sorting, I alsways tell clients not to go within 2 months interest payments of the limit.