Nationwide's Save to Buy Account/Mortgage

JazzyJ83

Hi everyone

I'm new to this thread, and the forums in general, but have found reading through this extremely helpful and informative. As the Save to Buy Scheme is still pretty new it's hard to find a lot of information out there on the internet about it, but it's great to see so many positive reports on here regarding the service, the speed at which the application process goes through and that the affordability calculator on the website is fairly accurate. Also, huge congratulations to everyone who has acquired a DIP/Mortgage Offer/first home!

The husband and I opened our Save to Buy account in July 2011. Initially we could only afford to put in between £50-£100 each month as we were working hard to pay off as many debts as possible to make ourselves appear squeaky clean when it comes to the mortgage application. From July 2011 to October 2012 we managed to clear overdrafts totalling £5,000, a personal loan and 2 credit cards.

At the end of October 2012 we moved out of our rental property and in with my in-laws in an effort to save more. We have since been putting away over £1,000 a month into the Save to Buy account. We have a car loan that finishes in May, after which even more will be put in and we hope to have a deposit of £8,000 by the end of June. We are looking to buy for £160,000, although the affordability calculator on the Nationwide site suggests they'd be willing to lend us closer to £190,000 - am hoping the fact we're only going to ask for £152,000 might help us a bit? Also we changed our current account to Nationwide Flex Account in December and the husband has a Nationwide credit card.

I just wanted to ask those who had been through the application process and who have outstanding balances on credit cards how they got on. We've improved our financial situation a lot in the last few years and have had no late payments/missed payments on any credit agreements for over 3 years. Our Nationwide Flex Account has a small overdraft limit of £100 but we've never used it.

Unfortunately we've had to pay out a fortune in car repairs recently, which we had no choice but to put on a credit card. Therefore, at the time of application I will have £4,000 on a Barclaycard with a credit limit of £8,250 and the OH will have £2,000 on his Nationwide credit card with a £4,000 limit.

I just wanted an idea of how this might be viewed at the application stage? I'm pretty worried about it but know we won't be able to clear these balances before we apply. We've already lived at the in-laws for 4 months, and to be honest another 4 months is plenty - really don't want to have to prolong it any longer as we lived together in rented accommodation for nearly 10 years and are finding the adjustment quite a strain!

Any advice would be hugely appreciated... we're thinking of arranging a meeting with a mortgage adviser at Nationwide perhaps in May just to get advice as to how best prepare for the actual application.

Thanks everyone!

rodenal

Bit late responding to this sorry but here goes.

We had a balance (circa £2k) that I declared at application stage and have car finance. Card balance is now gone so wouldn't have been an issue if the offer had a condition that the balance was cleared but there was no such requirement on the credit card or car finance on our offer. We were significantly under what they would have been prepared to lend though at nearly £100k less than the theoretical maximum loan.

To be honest it's impossible for anyone to tell you what they will or wont think of the balance. Some things that you can be sure of is that they will remove it from your affordability (if you've not already put it into the caclulator) and it will be more of an issue the closer you get to their lending limit. I doubt the mortgage advisors will be able to tell you much either without a DIP but it would do no harm for you to have a chat with them.

nakiwala123

Hi All,

We have had our offer accepted on the house we liked on Saturday. Timeline below.

21st Feb - DIP meeting and approved
22nd Feb - 24th Mar - House hunting
26th Mar - Offer accepted
2nd Apr - Full Application and appoint solicitor

chequer71

Hi all,

I'm also looking at the same thing, with a view to moving my current ISA money into one of these accounts and then gradually adding my (and possibly my partner's) savings towards a deposit too (we're planning for a mortgage app late 2013/early 2014).

I have a question re: impact on credit records though. To get the most attractive offers it looks like it is best to open a Flex Account in tandem with a Save to Buy account (that option currently offers free legal and standard valuation fees in addition). But I already have two accounts (one with HSBC and one with Halifax), so does my partner. We have both switched between which we use most and which we choose to have our wages paid into.

a) Would it really be wise to open two new accounts at this stage (saver and flex), leaving me with 4 in total?

b) Would it be better to stick with the accounts I've had for years in order to show 'stability'?

We're not even certain we want a Nationwide mortgage, just that their offers currently rank amongst the most attractive to us (better than both Halifax and HSBC for starters). Would doing the above both damage our credit record and damage our potential relationship with, say, Halifax, if they turn out to be the more realistic/attractive option in 9-12 months time?

nakiwala123

Quick update;


21st Feb - DIP meeting and approved
22nd Feb - 24th Mar - House hunting
26th Mar - Offer accepted
2nd Apr - Full Application and appoint solicitor
16th April - Valuation survey

Johnny_Locus

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a while, taking in all your advice and recommendations, and so far it's filled me with confidence!

I just have one question, which I can't seem to find the answer to anywhere: how close are you to an actual offer when you have a DiP approved? I appreciate that it's subject to a final credit search and the underwriters will dig deeper than just a quick check, but generally, if you are accepted for a DiP, does that usually lead to success with an official mortgage application? What has everyone's experience been?

I should explain, my partner and I have a STB account with Nationwide and yesterday obtained a DiP detailing we can borrow £133k with a 7k deposit (salary wise we would be able to borrow up to £178k, so I think the lesser amount worked in our favour). This amount isn't based on a particular property, but we've decided to cap at that much. Now we've had this DiP I'm eager to get the ball rolling and we have house viewings at the end of this week.

My other question involves stamp duty: can you add this to a Save to Buy mortgage? Has anyone done this? I realise it would work out more expensive in the long run, but it's the only thing that would hold us back if we fell in love with a house tomorrow.

Any advice would be much appreciated

nakiwala123

From what I understand you can't borrow your stamp duty. You will have to fund that separate from the mortgage.

I'm also not sure about the success with formal mortgage offer. Our valuation has been instructed only after 2 days after full application. I always assumed it was only instructed after underwriter had carried out all their checks. I guess ours is straightforward case so in theory should not take that long to review.

Carrotline

Hello all,

Just logged in here after making my sixth monthly deposit in my STB account. We've seen a house we really like, and we are booked in to see a Nationwide mortgage adviser next Saturday to see about getting a decision in principle.

However, we're about £400 short of the required five per cent deposit at the moment (a situation that will be rectified next Monday when pay day arrives). Even so, do you think this will stop us getting the DIP?

If so, we should be able to beg/borrow/steal (I jest about the last one) in time for our meeting from our parents, who've promised to help bump up our deposit money by a couple of grand when the time to submit the full mortgage application comes, as well as shoulder the stamp duty burden.

I understand that Nationwide will be looking for "evidence of a deposit", but will they need the whole thing at this stage?

TeamLowe

just to add our small amount of experience so far...
DH called on Monday to make an appointment to go see them for a DIP but was given a phone interview today. we have been credit checked and approved for a DIP of 100k :j not sure if we could have gotten more but that's enough for us - the nw lady asked DH how much we wanted and he said 100k.

How true this is i don't know as obviously we'll find out at the full application stage but the NW lady said that the only further evidence they will require at application is our ID (passports) and our latest payslip, which is reflected in the DIP certificate
not sure if this is because we have a current account with them as well (although only opened in the last month) but she did say that having the save to buy account means we only have to prove our stated earnings are correct

flybynight

ok, im pretty new to this and am slightly lost.
we went to nationwide yesterday and saw a mortgage advisor, we had previously seen an affordability bloke. we took everything with us, payslips, bank statements, inside leg measurements etc, and I thought we would be doing an application there and then. I thought we had an agreement in principle already. yesterday though, he scanned everything in and gave us a decision in principle and we now have to go back next week for an application. anybody know what the purpose of waiting a week is? is there stuff to be sorted now or is it just that he doesn't have an appointment till then? also when does it get refererd to underwriters?
thanks