Mortgages with Santander - any good?

dawn_uk

Good morning,

We got an AIP over the phone last night with Santander. Apparently as they are so busy, our 'application' phone call is booked for a week's time and in between time we need to upload the relevant documents to their system. We were then told it may be approved in anywhere between a day and 4 weeks.

I've subsequently read many negative reviews on Santander mortgages (especially regarding long waits) and am wondering if we're making a big mistake.... Our chain in short and ideally we want to be moved by August. We chose not to go with Yorkshire BS due to poor reviews but now I'm wondering if it's just mortgages in general these days which take forever to get approved and thus get poor reviews. When we got our last mortgage 9 years ago there was none of this faffing and waiting around!

So, has anyone had any recent experiences with Santander, or can anyone recommend another mortgage provider who won't take forever to give us a mortgage (we both have good credit, hubby earns a decent wage PAYE and we're after just under 75% LTV)?

Thanks in advance

monty-doggy

I used woolwich from Barclays. Whole process from AIP , survey to final offer was about two weeks. Offer received yesterday. Told I can complete in two to four weeks.

Thrugelmir

dawn_uk wrote: »

I've subsequently read many negative reviews on Santander mortgages (especially regarding long waits) and am wondering if we're making a big mistake....

Vast majority of mortgage applications are processed without a problem.

So like this forum. The people that post tend to be FTB's, have unusual circumstances, previous or current credit issues, expect priority service, etc not a true reflection of the wider world.

Wh05apk

I use Abbey daily, and provided I give them what they want (usually before they ask for it, as 90% of the time I know what they will ask for) then their processing is as good as anybody's I can usually get an offer out within 7-10 days.

gazter

reading through posts, my concern with santander is how they treat you once your special rate has finished. If you are confident in 2/3/5 years you will have the same income and have no problem remortgaging elsewhere, then it shouldnt be a problem.

There just seems to be horror stories of Santandar freezing existing customers out of deals when they come off fixed rates.

Thrugelmir

gazter wrote: »

There just seems to be horror stories of Santandar freezing existing customers out of deals when they come off fixed rates.

Santander bought the mortgage books of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, so part of the exercise is a cleansing one.

If LLoyds wasn't partly nationalised. Then it too would be following a similar process. As 30% of HBOS's mortgage book on merger was found to be outside Lloyds own risk profile.

bigadaj

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Santander bought the mortgage books of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, so part of the exercise is a cleansing one.

If LLoyds wasn't partly nationalised. Then it too would be following a similar process. As 30% of HBOS's mortgage book on merger was found to be outside Lloyds own risk profile.

Yes, who would expect a multi billion pound financial institution to undertake some due diligence before deciding to buy a competitor. Still arguably lloyds shareholders have taken a portion of the hit that taxpayers have absorbed, so not all bad.

jacksonfl

Just had a mortgage approved from Santander in the last week.

I stupidly thought as they had been my bank for a long time, then this might speed up the process - it didn't.

It took 5 weeks from first contact to an approval letter. The first delay was them calling a week later saying that they had lost some details an needed to redo the app.

Nothing seemed to happen for 3 weeks, I chased them up, and if by magic the whole thing seemed to zoom through the steps of the process within 2 hours of my call - it feels a little like the app was misplaced before being found and then processed... however that might just be "coincidence"...

As a first time buyer I have found many parts of the process obtuse - for example, I was told by telephone staff to ignore the online status tracker as this was inaccurate.

Now I have the approval letter, I am expecting at least another 6 weeks while the conveyancing is done.

cookiemonsie

My husband and I are applying for our first mortgage with Santander as they've been our bank for several years during which we've never had any real problems and their rates were compariable. It's been ok so far; got AIP and offered then within 5 days we'd submitted our full application and within another 5 days we were told it had been to the underwriters and was approved subject to valuation. Valuation was done a week later (last Thursday) and we're just waiting for our formal offer letter now. So all in all it's taken about 4 weeks from start to finish, we applied in branch and we've had the same very helpful adviser all the way through. I'm not counting my chickens just let though because nothing is ever guaranteed until you've signed on the dotted line and have the keys!

chistery

gazter wrote: »

reading through posts, my concern with santander is how they treat you once your special rate has finished. If you are confident in 2/3/5 years you will have the same income and have no problem remortgaging elsewhere, then it shouldnt be a problem.

There just seems to be horror stories of Santandar freezing existing customers out of deals when they come off fixed rates.

My fixed rate is coming to an end in a few months. I've just renewed it at a lower rate for another few years. Just took about 20 mins on the phone to them.