Mortgage transfer

liamf2

Hi
We are buying a "new" house at £255000 and selling our existing property at £322000. In order to avoid paying the full redemption fee (£2000) we intend to 'transfer' using our existing provider Santander. We only need to borrow £70000 approx - our existing mortage is just under £100000- we wish to retain £20000- 25000 for improvments to the "new" house. Any advise about this course of action or a better alternative welcome.Also need to factor in £12000 fees etc (including stamp duty)

Dave_Ham

Hi there,

Firstly, I think you need to assess if you really need to pay £255k as with the Stamp Duty threshold at £250k no-one pays £255k

Secondly look at indicatively what rates they will offer you and then match this against what else is out there and see if it will mitigate the Early Redemption Penalty.

Given your mortgage size, I would suspect staying where you are will be the most cost effective but worth checking..

Good luck

Catch1964

Hello,
We are in a similar situation with Santander and want to Port our Mortgage of 77k to a new house we have had the mortgage for 11 years with on issues ( it was an old Abby product) at a very good rate of 0.5 above base rate ( currently we pay 1% ). To say it has been a nightmare would be an understating if it was not for the very good interest rate I would have walked away weeks ago.
Five weeks on and hours of phone calls and sending documents it is still not resolved.

Even if you have a mortgage with them and only want a mortgage for the same amount or less (we also are in a better financial situation than we were when we took the mortgage out ) they still make you apply as a new application.
That would not be so bad but they never ring you back they lose paper work and contradict what they say. We are now being told the mortgage we have been paying is unaffordable!!! I think it is more of a commercial decision for them and I am appalled by the diabolical customer service or lack of it. I would never ever deal with them again and have now gone elsewhere, the new lender is happy to lend £116 k. I am taking my complaint further. So my advice would be to log every conversation with them and start talking to them early in the process as it takes them weeks to do anything. I am amazed a bank can operate in this way. Best of luck and I hope your dealings with Santander are more constructive than mine.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar problems with Santander.

tupelotomemphis

Hi there, ive been having exactly the same problems with Santander, they are an awful awful bank. Weve had an A&L 0.99 above base tracker since 07. Reserved new build in Feb, application to port went in Feb 19th, all agreed, supporting docs sent in March and have been phoning them 3 times a week since, dont ring you back, cannot speak to a manager, lying that the case has been sent to underwriters which eventually got sent to them on 7th May, got referred because wanting more paperwork, the same paperwork that was sent in March!!! The stre for ss has been overwhelming, i even put 20k in my new 123 current acc to make it look better.
Last Friday decided to apply to HSBC, got approval, received docs Sat, went in branch with supporting docs today and should get underwriter decision by end of week. The professionlism diff between the two is striking.
Now im gonna see which one does the valuation first and go with them as house builder getting twitchy!!
PLEASE AVOID SANTANDER FOR YOUR OWN SANITY!

Thrugelmir

tupelotomemphis wrote: »

PLEASE AVOID SANTANDER FOR YOUR OWN SANITY!

Easy to explain. From a commercial viewpoint your business is losing Santander money. So they are more than happy for you to take your business elsewhere.

Added to which Santander are looking to reduce their mortgage lending going forward and target business lending which is more profitable.

Dave_Ham

Whilst Santander may be changing their business model, this is an unacceptable way to treat customers.

We have had a few clients recently who have experienced similar issues and for the sake of their purchase, sacrificed rate and changed lenders through us for speed.

Do not hinge everything on the Ombudsman as it is very difficult to prove when you take the emotion out of it. They will say they were underwriting and/or can choose who they do/do not lend money to. One client I had went through an awful experience and lost a tracker rate special and got offered £350 compo.

They have taken further but I am not hopeful.

Santander are certainly easier to deal with in branch, but by no means a picnic.

Good luck