making mortgages more difficult to get

olias

Didn't know whether to put this here or in the vent/warnings forum....

I know they are making it more difficult to get mortgages but this is ridiculous.

I put my figures into the NatWest online mortgage calculator, and it confirmed affordability. I then rang their mortgage sales line, went through all my facts and figures and was told, yes, I passed the affordability, and should have no problem getting a mortgage. I was then given an appointment with a member of staff in my local branch and given a reference number to quote.

The guy who took the appointment had no idea why I was there, he said he didn't deal with mortgages and the reference number was meaningless to him and didn't correspond with any recognised NatWest reference numbers. He did however, once again confirm my affordability figures and made a number of appointments for me with a different branch.

The first I was told, was to be a 20 minute phone interview, this was to be followed a week later by a 2 hour(!) Interview where I was told I would be asked such searching questions as how often I ate steak ( I kid you not).

The time of the telephone interview came and I had taken time off work and gathered all the relevant figures and paper work I thought would be needed.

No call came!

I then discovered you can no longer call specific branches, but only a centralised number. None of the options given related to mortgages, so I took pot luck and tried the loans option.....wrong. I then tried the any other business option, the operator put me through to a department - the wrong one. They helpfully offered to put me through to the correct department and put me through.........to the wrong one. Fourth time lucky and I eventually got through to someone who had access to appointments. She said the lady I was suppose to have the telephone call with was on holiday and not due back for another 4 days!

She also stated these pre interview telephone calls were not needed as it was only to confirm my appointment and tell me what to bring - why couldn't they just have said that at the time of making the appointment instead of making me waste several hours off work?

Anyway, the long and short is that I appear to still have the interview in about ten days and hopefully will be able to actually apply then!

Anyone else had similar experiences?

Olias

amnblog

That's what happens when you go direct to the Lender rather than using a broker.

densol_2

Make a formal complaint - your time has been seriously wasted.