HSBC Strange lending criteria

mac24

Me and my wife went for a meeting today with a mortgage adviser at the HSBC.We were interested in remortgaging with the lifetime tracker 1.99% above base.
We are currently with Santander.
House worth £210000
outstanding balance £111000
I earn in excess of £40000.My wife,who is currently on maternity leave and will be returning to her part time post in May,earns £6500.
We have no outstanding credit card balances and a small interest free credit loan costing £60 per month ending in October.We have two children
The adviser punched in all the details and on more than one occasion said he thought there would be no problems.How wrong he was!
His computer told him the maximum we could borrow was £92000!.At first he said this was because of the two dependants.Amazingly he took one of them off(not sure what we were supposed to do with him?Adoption maybe?) Anyway computer returned with a figure of £108000.Almost but no cigar.
He then informed us that it was probably be because my wifes salary was not entered into the equation.I thought it had been but apparently not.Warning to women on maternity leave,you are as good as unemployed in the eyes of HSBC and they will not enter your salary into any calculations.He then finally entered her 'potential' earnings and we waited for the answer from the computer that loves saying NO! And guess what.It came back with the astonishing figure of £173000!?!?!?
I have no idea how my wifes salary,that will probably be swallowed up with child care and train fares,would now allow us almost DOUBLE what we were originally quoted.And nor,I'm afraid,did the mortgage adviser.Thankfully this farcical turn of events was not a formal application, so will not go down on our history.

My advice to anyone going to the HSBC for a mortgage is not to take wage slips and bank statements to your meeting.

Try magic beans and lucky heather instead!

Thrugelmir

mac24 wrote: »

It came back with the astonishing figure of £173000!?!?!?

With how many dependents?

None, 1 , 2 or 3?

GMS

You have seen a salesperson not an adviser. By the sounds of it they have done everything possible whether correct or not to make the affordability calculation fit.

Try the affordability calculator yourself on their website and see what you get it to be.

mac24

Thrugelmir wrote: »

With how many dependents?

None, 1 , 2 or 3?

2.....I think?

mac24

GMS wrote: »

You have seen a salesperson not an adviser. By the sounds of it they have done everything possible whether correct or not to make the affordability calculation fit.

Try the affordability calculator yourself on their website and see what you get it to be.

No.Definitely a HSBC mortgage adviser. Saw the salesperson last week.
To be fair,he wasn't too bad.Struggled himself to get his head round it.Admitted it's not the first time the HSBC have lost good custom due to their picky ways.

Calculation fits fine on the website.apparently when you get down to the 'nitty gritty' the problems start.

betmunch

I really dont see what the strange lending criteria is.

When you wife has no income the computer sees her as a dependent, when she has an income she isnt hence the huge difference in lending.

If the HSBC guy cant work out his own system hes clearly incompetent, however nice he may seem.

And for the record, from what you say, hes clearly a salesperson, even if his business card says "advisor"

kingstreet

Play around with income and dependent figures on the ING calculator and I reckon you'll see an even bigger difference.

http://www.ingdirect.co.uk/mortgages/mortgage_information/borrow_amount.asp

It's been the most extreme on dependents I can remember in the last twelve months.