Anyone tried to get a Santander mortgage recently?

juliemacnam

It seemed pretty straightforward. We'd had a mortgage with Santander for 9 years, we were buying a new house and all we wanted to do was transfer our existing mortgage to the new house (roughly the same value), as we were entitled to do under the mortgage terms and conditions. You'd have thought it would have been simple. Oh no.

(1) They promised to phone back 3+ times to discuss the whole thing with my partner. Kept missing the appointments. When the appointment was made it was for 2 weeks later.

(2)The phone call to discuss moving the mortgage across was to take 90 minutes.

(3) It took 3.5 hours, going through a multitude of questions in relation to the new requirements.

(4) Since then he's had 4 phone calls from them, asking for information he's already given them, or for extra paperwork that could've been requested during that initial 3.5 hour phone call.

Some of the issues that have arisen (and certainly not all) include:

* Using incorrect information on his net income, despite having all the necessary paperwork. The "computer" worked it out for them.

* As I'm currently on a short-term contract (I was rashly self-employed for 5 months out of a grand total of 27 years full-time employment), they're expecting us to be able to tell them exactly what happens when the contract runs out in August. (As my partner said, "so you expect me to have a crystal ball?").

* They asked for original copies of an endowment policy (cue panicked phone calls to trace them) which turned out not to be needed at all. Copy of the annual statement was actually all they needed.

So far they've paid us £30 for their incompetence, but it's still ongoing. We're hoping we end up with a mortgage offer, before the vendors give up hope on us altogether.

Now, remember, we've never had problems with credit card debts, CCJs, paying back our mortgage, not in 20 years.

If we're having these problems, how on earth is anyone who has been self-employed for a while or has had any minor financial blips, expected to get a mortgage with Santander???

Has anyone else suffered recently?

Eviesmummy

I read some horror stories about Santander while waiting for my mortgage to go through, but I have to say I didn't have any real problems, at least none that my broker mentioned to me!
I'm sorry you're having such a nightmare. I hope they get it all sorted for you soon.

HumphreyDumpty

I'm in the process of trying to get a Santander mortgage through a broker. It was submitted 3 weeks ago and still isn't with an underwriter. So far broker has been asked to confirm that I'm aware of ERCs - twice. They have asked for copies of payslips saying that they haven't received them when we've already had queries on the information within them.

It just seems to be one query after another about information that they've already had....

juliemacnam

HumphreyDumpty wrote: »

It just seems to be one query after another about information that they've already had....

Same thing's happening with us HumphreyDumpty. It wouldn't be so bad if they asked for it all at the same time, and only asked for it once!

I've even been asked for a copy of my contract (they already had my offer letter). What business is it of theirs to see how many holidays I have or how many hours I work when they already know how much I'm being paid?

I hope yours gets sorted soon. People are going to lose out on their new homes with this sort of service happening.

amnblog

juliemacnam wrote: »

how on earth is anyone who has been self-employed for a while or has had any minor financial blips, expected to get a mortgage with Santander???

They are not.

With this example you can also see the service standards when you go direct to lender.

amnblog

juliemacnam wrote: »

What business is it of theirs to see how many holidays I have or how many hours I work when they already know how much I'm being paid?

It is their business because you want their money.

A Lender is entitled to ask for what they want to consider a mortgage application.

ethank

You've received some real bad service. I'm not surprised that they asked you about your short term contract - Under MMR they have to consider whether you can still afford this mortgage if you don't have that job. And a short term contract will worry them.

Can you ask your employer what their intentions are?

amnblog

HumphreyDumpty wrote: »

I'm in the process of trying to get a Santander mortgage through a broker. It was submitted 3 weeks ago and still isn't with an underwriter. So far broker has been asked to confirm that I'm aware of ERCs - twice. They have asked for copies of payslips saying that they haven't received them when we've already had queries on the information within them.

It just seems to be one query after another about information that they've already had....

You case has probably gotten caught up in the blips Santander have had with their new (post MMR) systems.

This is not down to your broker.

HumphreyDumpty

Hi amnblog. I've no issues with my broker whatsoever, he's as frustrated as I am. He's hoping that it will go to the underwriter queue today with a view to it being looked at some time next week..

There are three mortgages in my chain, all being submitted within a day or two of each other and mine is the only one not offered yet :-(

Thrugelmir

juliemacnam wrote: »

as we were entitled to do under the mortgage terms and conditions.

You have no such rights. Banks are a business and therefore can determine the terms on which they will will lend. Your existing contract will certainly say as much.

juliemacnam

HumphreyDumpty wrote: »

Hi amnblog. I've no issues with my broker whatsoever, he's as frustrated as I am. He's hoping that it will go to the underwriter queue today with a view to it being looked at some time next week..

There are three mortgages in my chain, all being submitted within a day or two of each other and mine is the only one not offered yet :-(

We had a similar experience - the first-time buyers had their mortgage offer before we did.

Hold in there HumphreyDumpty and everyone else in the same boat - it took a while and complaints to higher-ups, but we've eventually had our mortgage offer.