Complaint letter to Santander

Hanky_Panky

superphil007 wrote: »

Quote: By the way 603 people have read this thread now and I am sure that most of them would agree with me.

I'm afraid not !

It's now 640 - maybe most people agree with the information you have already been given which is correct. You hold a different view, and you're entitled to it however misguided, I believe you are in a very small minority.

SouthCoast

You can always transfer your business to The Lloyds Banking Group..........
..............which is run by ex Santander employees.

KAMT

My husband and I are in the same position with Alliance and Leicester and have been for 4 years and we feel disgusted at the way Santander are treating A&I customers.
We are in negative equity and cannot move our mortgage and Santander WILL NOT offer us any products unless we can get our LTV to 90% (Which is not realistic!). Also note that the HPI that they are using is nowhere near accurate for where we live, having spoken to half a dozen local estate agents and had valuations from them which all come in around £10 - £15k over the HPI valuation, which would then take us out of negative equity and into a situation where we could remortgage.
We have never defaulted, and my mortgage advisor can't even explain the reasons why Santander haven't changed their SVR so all customers are on the same. He has spoken to them about it and their excuse to him is that A&I aren't 'officially' a part of Santander yet.

My understanding of our mortgage when we first signed into it was that we were in a fixed contract for 2 years at 5.04% and then this would change to the SVR which at the time of signing was 4.99%, the same as now. However, we were told that this rate may fluctuate when the time came that our fixed rate ended and we may end up with a higher/lower rate.

We have had a number of discussions with the "A&I department of Santander" regarding this and cannot wait to be in a position where we can move our mortgage away from them.
I just hope that when the base rate rises (Which is inevitable) that the A&I SVR doesn't raise until Santander's SVR equals it. (Although, considering A&I/Santander haven't dropped their SVR in the last god knows how long, I naively hope that they will be one of the last ones to raise them when the rates raise!)

Thrugelmir

superphil007 wrote: »

Quote: If I could I would... I am one of those thousands of British homeowner who has lost a significant percentage of equity in my property and is now stuck at the mercy of the banks for borrowing. I cannot even get an existing deal since we now stand in negative equity.

Negative equity is nothing new. Has happened before will happen again. Over time the situation will correct itself. If for no other reason than you'll owe less money on your mortgage. Something most people can influence if they wish to.

Thrugelmir

KAMT wrote: »

My husband and I are in the same position with Alliance and Leicester and have been for 4 years and we feel disgusted at the way Santander are treating A&I customers.

Why was the A&L taken over by Santander? Because A&L made poor lending decisions. Compared to Santander has a poorer quality mortgage book. Which is reflected in the interest charged.

You need to address the issue of negative equity not expect the bank to bail you out.

hillcats

Regardless of how many views, I disagree with the original post.
You signed on the dotted line for a mortgage product that you still have in place, if you believe the lender has broken their side of the contract then stand up and do something about, stop spouting off about it and take them to court IF you think you are right and they are wrong. OR you could take the easier route by knuckling down and overpaying your mortgage until you have a good LTV then change mortgage provider, its that simple.

As with anything you buy, if it is cheaper a week later then TOUGH luck, that is life my old fruit.

kingstreet

KAMT wrote: »

Also note that the HPI that they are using is nowhere near accurate for where we live, having spoken to half a dozen local estate agents and had valuations from them which all come in around £10 - £15k over the HPI valuation, which would then take us out of negative equity and into a situation where we could remortgage

Sadly, estate agency valuations don't provide a realistic appraisal of market value. That's why people accept lower prices for their property than what they've been asking. The only way you could convince your lender the value is wrong is to commission a qualified chartered surveyor to value the property, at a cost to you of around £100, or you could use the HomeTrack system and see if you can get a better electronic valuation than the lender, at a cost of around £20.

You say that Santander won't give you a new product unless you get the LTV down to 90% and that if the property was valued according to your estate agent figures you'd be able to remortgage.

Have you looked at the rates that would be available? A 90% remortgage would have a considerably higher rate than you are currently playing, unless you paid up front fees. For example, the best rate I can find for a 90% remortgage is a 3.99% discount (1% off their 4.99% SVR) for three years. This would cost you in excess of £1,500 in transfer fees. You'd be robbing Peter to pay Paul as that £1,500 spread over the three year deal would be effectively adding £41 per month to the payments.

Fee-free remortgage products would leave you with similar payments to what you are currently paying, or worse.

dunstonh

We have never defaulted, and my mortgage advisor can't even explain the reasons why Santander haven't changed their SVR so all customers are on the same.

I'm afraid that doesn' say much about your mortgage adviser.

As already said, negative equity is not a new event. Indeed, at the moment, the numbers of negative equity are quite low. People who are not on capital and repayment mortgages or bought at the peak are always at risk of neg eq.

JQ.

superphil007 wrote: »

Quote: By the way 603 people have read this thread now and I am sure that most of them would agree with me. The more people that read this thread the more bad publicity for Santander. I am confident that the readers will make their own mind.

I'm one of the 603 and another one who doesn't agree with you. You clearly don't understand the issues. They are not ripping you off. I can't add anything more than what has been covered by the very clear posts that have already been provided to you.

I think you'll find that many people are refraining from posting as other posters have covered all the relevant points already.

KAMT

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Why was the A&L taken over by Santander? Because A&L made poor lending decisions. Compared to Santander has a poorer quality mortgage book. Which is reflected in the interest charged.

You need to address the issue of negative equity not expect the bank to bail you out.

My issue is that it feels like we are being penalised for other people's bad money management. Fair enough if A&L made poor lending decisions to some people, but we aren't one of their bad decisions. It seems that everyone is being tarred with the same brush (and I know its not cost effective for Santander to sift through the 'good' A&I customers) but it is just frustrating.
We are trying to address the issue of negative equity but, like everyone else, we are facing rising costs of living and can't afford to make huge overpayments.

It would just be nice to be able to get into another fixed rate (even if it were a slightly higher rate than what we are paying now) just to know what our payments are going to be for a couple of years.:undecided