Woolwich stopped issuing AIP, or..?

kaa_3

Good evening All,
Briefly: time came to look for a house, been saving for a number of years. Went into my local Barclays branch to have a chat with a mortgage adviser, just to be told that someboby will call you on Tuesday at 1:30pm, no problem with that. An adviser phoned me today, saying that he is aware about my salary figures and immediately confirmed that the bank is able to offer me x5 times of our joint income. And all is looking good, so you can go and search for a house and try to get an offer accepted. Well....., I said, I would like to sit down and go through out financial situation with you and have some light on our position, whether it is worth going ahead or not, and if all is good, as MA said, I would like to have an AIP first and then go and search for the right property. The Mortgage Advisor had cut me off saying that Woolwich is not issuing AIP any longer and whole system has changed recently. Rather strange message from MA, have to say, but is it true, was there any changes introduced recently? Sorry if it has been asked already, I just find my conversation with MA a bit limited, not all info has been given openly as I have expected. It is an early days for us, but I am doing my homework and trying to plan out the process in proper way.
Thank you!

Old_Git

have you gone to an independent broker that will search the whole market

kaa_3

No, I thought to start from my own bank to see what they would be able to offer.

iluvsaving

If by chance you bank with Barclays you may qualify for a LOYALTY MORTGAGE that is not advertised with mortgage brokers and could be better than the advertised rate.

kaa_3

Thank you for your replies, and yes MA said that we should be able to qualify for a Loyalty Mortgage, and the difference is that bank is waiving a product fee, which is £499 in our case. What is still bothering me is that MA said that there is no such thing as Agreement in Principle any longer, so you go and chose the house submit an offer and then go back to the bank for the mortgage. To be frank, I would rather to have some sort of reassurance that we can qualify for a mortgage and what interest rate is going to be, and only then start search for a house. In this case it is the other way around, am I missing something?

paulmapp8306

How recently. I got an AIP from Woolwich last Tuesday.

The_J

kaa wrote: »

Thank you for your replies, and yes MA said that we should be able to qualify for a Loyalty Mortgage, and the difference is that bank is waiving a product fee, which is £499 in our case. What is still bothering me is that MA said that there is no such thing as Agreement in Principle any longer, so you go and chose the house submit an offer and then go back to the bank for the mortgage. To be frank, I would rather to have some sort of reassurance that we can qualify for a mortgage and what interest rate is going to be, and only then start search for a house. In this case it is the other way around, I am missing something?

Unless you have credit concerns or are looking to borrow a lot I would always suggest this sequence of events anyway. AIPs are not worth the paper they are written on.