Nationwide - I want to borrow more... Please help!

dave333

My wife and I are currently looking at moving house (as there are some lovely new builds right near our house and I have an idea of their base price) but Nationwide won't lend us what we need!

I want to port our existing mortgage (due to revert to BMR soon) and take out additional borrowing but the website says we can't borrow what we need.

We have been overpaying for 2 years and the combined monthly payment on the total mortgage we need, at full repayment, is less than what we have been paying... so we can easily afford it! Seems crazy to me :mad:

Are there any clever ways you can think of to achieve what we want? Other providers will lend us what we need but I don't want to lose our mortgage that will be on the BMR...

Is it worth going into our local branch to discuss with a Nationwide mortgage advisor or are they going to tell us what the website says? Would an independent IFA (or one that uses Nationwide) be able to help us?

Dave_Ham

There is not going to be an easy way to resolve this I am afraid. Typically people leave commitments off whilst using the calculators rather than forgetting to add income, but

Have you definitely not forgotten some income you could use?

Subject to your loan to value, could you not take on interest only and overpay or add years to the term and overpay again - just playing the system a bit..

Neither a broker or an MA in branch will have much clout with Nationwide I suspect as in the past they have been quite inflexible.

Anything else in your circumstances you can give us to give you a clue. Is it a joint mortgage and any changes?

Certain types of bonus, commission etc. can be used...!

kingstreet

Nationwide is towards the top end of what lenders are prepared to lend, at around 4.7x income. Is there a specific reason why they won't lend you what you need and who do you think will do so?

dave333

Thanks for the quick reply!!

I have included everything I can on the calculator, we have quite a simple financial situation and are very good with our money - I think we are probably better with money than Nationwide think people are in general!

We can easily afford the repayments, even at the highest rate of interest they offer - its just that based on our salaries they won't lend us what we need!

Our current mortgage is interest only but we have been overpaying by £500 per month for the last 2 years.

The house we want is worth 240-250k and we have a 30k deposit. We are both 26 - I have a student loan (which nationwide take into account...)

I have written a letter to their Mortgage Department in Northampton outlining our budget affordability and the fact we have been loyal customers for quite some time - worth a try...

Its a joint mortgage but neither my wife nor I get any commission or bonuses...

dave333

Thanks Kingstreet.

Unfortunately Nationwide reduce the amount they will lend due to me making statutory student loan repayments. They will lend us £189,500 (about £10k more without student loan repayments...).

Northern Rock will lend us £222,500, HSBC will lend £211k, Lloyds will lend £222,500...

I just really don't want to lose our BMR mortgage as the rate is so low and seems a waste to throw it away... Heart says go for house, head says be patient!!! argh!

I was just wondering if there was any way that Nationwide would adjust their lending criteria, we can clearly afford the repayments with sufficient slack to take account of interest rate rises and we are both in very secure jobs in which our salaries will only increase... I thought their mortgage advisors may have certain power to request an increase in borrowing but it seems not!

Thrugelmir

dave333 wrote: »

I was just wondering if there was any way that Nationwide would adjust their lending criteria, we can clearly afford the repayments with sufficient slack to take account of interest rate rises and we are both in very secure jobs in which our salaries will only increase... I thought their mortgage advisors may have certain power to request an increase in borrowing but it seems not!

In principle your deposit is to low.

Increase the amount you are paying into your mortgage or save more. That is the reality of the situation.

On a £250k house, equity of £30k could disappear overnight. As its less than a 10% reduction.

As you say that you dont want to lose the BMR rate. Likewise the NW would like you off it. So reducing additional borrowing is one mechanism to force a borrower to switch lenders.

Dave_Ham

I think you will be ok to be honest.

If you can get circa £190k from NWide and have £30k deposit, get your haggling boots on and get down to the new build site!

I fancy they will cut you a deal on those figures. Be mindful that the Stamp Duty is due to stop soon so they would have pushed their business to the extreme to try and swallow up all this first time buyer business first.

Cant remember the Nationwide calc, can you not increase term to increase affordability, subject to you going onto repayment as new..