Comedians at Santander

rudekid48

Just thought I'd share my recent experience - I'll try to keep it brief

Background - Mortgage, loan, CCard all with Santander plus 2 x current accounts, fixed rate period ended.

So we thought we'd take advantage of the low rates available and consolidate all of our credit (all with Santander), reduce our mortgage term by 1 year and reduce monthly outgoings by £500.

Best deals available were Co-op and Nationwide but we thought for ease (and only an extra £4 per month) we'd stay with Santander. Anyway, to cut a long story short, they decided that we could not afford to pay them less money each month! They were taking into account things like how much we would spend on our kids over their next few birthdays/xmas etc, what presents we MIGHT buy each other and a whole host of other wonderful excuses not to do it!

We didn't want any extra cash, just what we already owed them.. No arrears on any of the accounts (ever), they also confirmed thatwe were showing no signs at all of struggling to meet our payments (they have both current accounts) and yet still declared that we could not afford to pay them £500 less per month than we currently do!

Why can't they just be honest and say "we don't want to do it because we will earn less money from you"...

Anyway, the end result is we've moved everything from them - so now they'll get sweet FA :rotfl:

Funny how every other lender out there was falling over themselves to lend us more money than we wanted

I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy on the phone as he seemed embarrassed telling me their decision.

In the current climate you would think that I would be the perfect customer for them - no adverse credit, good income, good job, 20+ year track record with them, 60% equity etc

No wonder they are in trouble....

betmunch

And welcome to the world of mortgages!!!!

I havent recommended an Abbey (Santanders intermediary arm) mortgage since last year due to the problems they are having

haras_nosirrah

I know it sounds ridiculous but it is down to how santander view your current commitments.

It has been proven that a lot of people who have requested to borrow additional money on the mortgage to clear credit commitments haven't done so - the commitments are still there and they now owe more money

Santander have decided now to factor in your current debt to their affordability calculator even though you are saying you will pay it off - they can't force you to do so.

i.e. they are adding your existing debts onto what you want to borrow and are saying you can't afford both. The fact you are trying to consolidate probably supports this assessment

Not suggesting you won't be clearing your debts with the additional money but they aren't taking the chance that you will end up with double the debt

rudekid48

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

I know it sounds ridiculous but it is down to how santander view your current commitments.

It has been proven that a lot of people who have requested to borrow additional money on the mortgage to clear credit commitments haven't done so - the commitments are still there and they now owe more money

Santander have decided now to factor in your current debt to their affordability calculator even though you are saying you will pay it off - they can't force you to do so.

i.e. they are adding your existing debts onto what you want to borrow and are saying you can't afford both. The fact you are trying to consolidate probably supports this assessment

Not suggesting you won't be clearing your debts with the additional money but they aren't taking the chance that you will end up with double the debt

And if all of our debt wasn't already with them then I would agree with you, but all of our accounts were with them. Besides, if I wanted to use my santander credit card to do a balance transfer from another card then they would handle it all for me and pay off the other debt directly. They could EASILY do this with a mortgage - especially seeing as they alreday hold ALL of the debt.

The adviser fed me the same line. Funny how every other lender that I spoke to didn't have the same approach (there may be others though - i didn't spreak to everyone in the market ).

If you are correct and that is the only reason then this is a classic "computer says no". If they applied any common sense then they wouldn't have lost a 20+ year customer with a 100% record with them.

In fact, they even told me that if I had been in arrears with any of their accounts then they WOULD restructure it all :rotfl:

haras_nosirrah

they are one of the first to take this approach - same as with the 50% ltv cap on interest only lending. Others have soon followed suit and this may be another area where things are about to get tighter.

AwesomeMcTawesome

In the very recent past my FTB mortgage offer came back short of what I required, due to Abbey taking a recently approved personal loan (about a month previous to pay off car loans thus dropping monthly outgoings) and adding it to the affordability calculator along with the car loan balances, even though these debts are now settled (but not updated on the credit file as such, should be in a day or two).

An element of common sense should provail (which did after my advisor had a word with the underwriter), but the explination was that without the proof of payment (sent via fax, by advisor) they could not be sure that the money was to spend on clearing the car loans.

I suppose this is the way they do business (responsible lending).

The fact that you bank with them the way you do makes me think that 'computer says No!' approach is how these things are handled more often that not.

The_J

Maybe they think you'll just rack up the same again on the credit cards as soon as you have paid them off.

Certainly, if Santander can't offer you enough on their income multiples then you're pushing the envelope a little.

Wh05apk

[QUOTE=haras_nosirrah;53808117
(I am a broker) [/QUOTE]

If you are a broker where's your signature?

betmunch

rudekid48 wrote: »

The adviser fed me the same line. Funny how every other lender that I spoke to didn't have the same approach (there may be others though - i didn't spreak to everyone in the market ).

Most lenders dont, there are a few that do. As you have found, its pretty easy to find one thats views suit your application

Wh05apk

The_J wrote: »

Maybe they think you'll just rack up the same again on the credit cards as soon as you have paid them off.

Certainly, if Santander can't offer you enough on their income multiples then you're pushing the envelope a little.

Abbey assume other commitments will NOT be repaid, so factor them into affordability calculations, effectively meaning Abbey cannot be used for any debt consolidation remortgages, there are still other lenders who will lend upto 5 x income whilst ignoring existing commitments if they are told they are being repaid.

rudekid48

The_J wrote: »

Certainly, if Santander can't offer you enough on their income multiples then you're pushing the envelope a little.

Strange how every other lender that I spoke to - including notoriously conservative lenders like Coventry BS - thought that Santander were off their rocker then....

Anyway, it's all good now - I've moved to a new provider and will be mortgage and debt free in 9 years