ING Direct Mortgages - Flexible Variable Rate?

Jeannine

Let us know how it goes!!

ascully22

I just thought that I would share with you all the very poor customer service that I have recently experianced with ING Direct.

Back in January when we decided to move up the next step of the property ladder I researched the options open to us with regards to our mortgage. I decided that I would use ING Direct, even though they only promise to keep within 0.9% above BOE Base Rate (most veri rate mortgages state that they will never go above 0.49%).

After getting our mortgage in principle, a week later we filled in the on-line forms to process our application. Considering that before giving a mortgage in principle we would have been credit checked, they managed to incorectly process our application 5 times!

Considering that they had both our most recent pay-slips, the first two problems in our application where due to one of us not having a job or income - yet they agreed that they had the pay-slip! They also managed to put in incorrect address details, and best of all said that we where not selling our house!?!!?!

Everytime I called to find out what was happening, I could never speak to the same person twice, the supervisor that I did manage to speak to early on would never return my calls, even when he promised to do so... I wasted over 10 days with ING before giving up and staying with our current mortgage supplier - mainly because they answer the phone, you can talk to the same person and they manage to read documents sent to them in the post.

One final word of warning - ING Direct tried to order our survey before our mortgage was agreed. It was only down to our very good estate agent that I found out that a survey had been booked and they had taken the payment from my credit card - It took several calls before anybody at ING could confirm what was happening with the survey. I have sinced found out that it is common for some mortgage lenders to get the surveys done early so that if there is a problem with the mortgage application then they can keep the fee charged for the survey! Easy way for a quick buck!

I am sure that many people will have their remortgages processed quickly and easily with ING Direct, but if your moving house then you should keep a careful eye on what they are doing.

Our current mortgage supplier did what ING took two weeks to do in less than 24hrs - now thats what I call service!

thetaxwoman

Our remortgage with ING went smoothly and successfully, thank goodness - I'm glad I hadn't read the tale of poor customer service above, or I might have gone elsewhere. I found everyone I spoke to helpful and polite, the whole process was completed between April 5th and 30th (which included the Easter holidays), paperwork was sent promptly, the online tracker was useful and, most importantly, the money went to the Nationwide on time to clear our previous fixed rate mortgage as soon as it finished.

Of course the bank interest rate has just gone up, so I'm expecting a hike in our repayments soon, but even taking that into account, this has been a good deal so far because there were no fees to pay (for a remortgage). What really convinced us about ING's remortgage offer was the flexibility that comes with it. We have a set of endowment policies maturing over the next 12 - 18 months and no-one else could give us the facility to overpay what we want when we want, without either having a higher SVR or incurring early repayment charges.

And of course, if a better deal comes up, we can leave the ING mortgage without paying any fees :j . So all in all, we're pleased with this.

DoshSaver

For other experiences related to ING Direct mortgage see this thread


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=5140335&posted=1#post5140335

fhmman

Hello. I'm another very happy customer with ING. I remortgage early april and everything went through within a month. Ive had good customer service aswell and cannot complain about a thing. I hope it continues. I'm sorry to hear about the ppl who are having problems. I hope everything gets sorted out.

Monkeymia

Me too no quarms...
payments to capital of sums over £1k easy and appear on online statement immediately.

Just wish it had a fixed rate option as expect rate about to rise after todays announcement by BoE of base rate raising to 5.5%

AJK_3

ascully22 wrote: »

I just thought that I would share with you all the very poor customer service that I have recently experianced with ING Direct.

Back in January when we decided to move up the next step of the property ladder I researched the options open to us with regards to our mortgage. I decided that I would use ING Direct, even though they only promise to keep within 0.9% above BOE Base Rate (most veri rate mortgages state that they will never go above 0.49%).

After getting our mortgage in principle, a week later we filled in the on-line forms to process our application. Considering that before giving a mortgage in principle we would have been credit checked, they managed to incorectly process our application 5 times!

Considering that they had both our most recent pay-slips, the first two problems in our application where due to one of us not having a job or income - yet they agreed that they had the pay-slip! They also managed to put in incorrect address details, and best of all said that we where not selling our house!?!!?!

Everytime I called to find out what was happening, I could never speak to the same person twice, the supervisor that I did manage to speak to early on would never return my calls, even when he promised to do so... I wasted over 10 days with ING before giving up and staying with our current mortgage supplier - mainly because they answer the phone, you can talk to the same person and they manage to read documents sent to them in the post.

One final word of warning - ING Direct tried to order our survey before our mortgage was agreed. It was only down to our very good estate agent that I found out that a survey had been booked and they had taken the payment from my credit card - It took several calls before anybody at ING could confirm what was happening with the survey. I have sinced found out that it is common for some mortgage lenders to get the surveys done early so that if there is a problem with the mortgage application then they can keep the fee charged for the survey! Easy way for a quick buck!

I am sure that many people will have their remortgages processed quickly and easily with ING Direct, but if your moving house then you should keep a careful eye on what they are doing.

Our current mortgage supplier did what ING took two weeks to do in less than 24hrs - now thats what I call service!

The valuation fee is taken after you have had an agreement in principle and have submitted a full mortgage application.
It would make sense to carry out a valuation on the property before issuing an offer to make sure that the property is suitable security and that it meets a lenders lending policy.
You would have had to provide credit card details over the phone or web, they can't just your money. I can't see how they would be making money from you by doing a valuation as they would have to pay the valuation company to carry out the work.
It makes sense that your current lender was able to move quicker, you would have been with them a while and would have track record with them that they are able to judge you by, hence requiring less paperwork from you.

AJK_3

jedeye wrote: »

It'll be interesting to hear from Jeanine if her re-mortgage has been finalised seamlessly to ING. If you have read my previous posts on this thread you'll know that I applied 2 months prior to the end of my end of fixed rate term and the 'easy bits' like the offer, valuation, salary checks etc were done speedily. The harder bits like contacting Chelsea for a redemption value for the date my fixed term ended was a complete and utter shambles! There legal team did not seem to have a clue about the process required to switch mortgages. I've sent ING an official complaint and I'm awaiting a response.

I've told ING to stop all work on my processing till I get a response to the complaint.

I'll keep you informed!

jedeye

It may be harder requesting a redemption statement because the new provider is relying on the existing lender's co-operation. I don't think Chelsea BS would be pulling out all the stops to assist ING somehow.
If the complaint was regarding the legal work, would it not have been quicker and easier addressing the complaint to the firm doing the legal stuff??

georgeb_2

There's a lot of good and bad things being said about IGN but I've decided to move from My Woolwich lifetime tracker (+0.19) to IGN's variable rate.
Just a couple of questions....there's no application fee or valuation and no tie ins - but do I need the services of a solicitor to process this or not?

Jeannine

To remortgage to ING Direct, legal fees are free if you use their solicitor/conveyancer. Everything is done by ING.