Santander - still the one to be avoided?

Kynthia

I wouldn't get a current account or have savings with Santander but I was happy to apply for a mortgage with them as you have very little contact once it's set up and it's gone well so far. The only thing I'm not happy with is their terms say overpayments must be posted by cheque for at least £500 which is archaic. However our circumstances mean we're unlikely to overpay much in the fixed term, but it would have been nice to add a little to our repayments so that we didn't even notice we were overpaying.

hcfc2007

I really don't get the Santander hate regarding overpayments.
I overpay every month, I just make a transfer to my mortgage account, for whatever amount I want to pay that month (it varies between £500-600), I then give their mortgage team a call and tell them how much I have overpaid, they ask if it is to reduce the term or monthly payment, I then get a letter confirming it and another one telling my new balance and term.

It's so easy, you just have to make sure that you don't make the payment in the week prior to your usual monthly payment, so that it doesn't affect your usual monthly payment.

Their rates are very competitive, have no fees and the CS team are very helpful IME.

Thrugelmir

Kynthia wrote: »

The only thing I'm not happy with is their terms say overpayments must be posted by cheque for at least £500 which is archaic.

Overpayments require manual intervention. So costly to administer. Doubt you would pay a £15 admin fee. Instead prefer to wait until you've £500 to deposit.

nidO

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Overpayments require manual intervention. So costly to administer. Doubt you would pay a £15 admin fee. Instead prefer to wait until you've £500 to deposit.

This is circular though, they're costly because they require manual intervention because Santander choose to have a method of handling them that harks back to the stone age and requires manual intervention.

Other lenders don't do this and let you overpay any amount you like at any time via automated systems such as online banking, no need to phone them, no need for then to manually process some form in branch by hand, no need for them to then send you a letter back.

CKhalvashi

nidO wrote: »

This is circular though, they're costly because they require manual intervention because Santander choose to have a method of handling them that harks back to the stone age and requires manual intervention.

Other lenders don't do this and let you overpay any amount you like at any time via automated systems such as online banking, no need to phone them, no need for then to manually process some form in branch by hand, no need for them to then send you a letter back.

I too don't get why they did this. Paying the balance in full following a business sale was a difficult process to go through, too, and even on a Santander to Santander cheque, we somehow ended up owing about 2 days interest due to this system, which at the SVR on more than £250k actually worked out to quite a lot of money.

As mentioned, many don't need to deal with the lender after the setting up, so it's more on rate rather than service on mortgages in general.

CK

GMAD

Thanks everyone for your comments, much appreciated.

Looks like we're going to go with Santander but just looking into a couple of other lenders first. Will make a decision tomorrow.

Cheers

ACG

What rate has he got you?
How much is the mortgage?
Did you want to tie in for a certain period?

I am just doing a 75% deal for a client and none of those lenders are near the top of my listings.