First Direct or HSBC

swindiff

Coming to the end of a 2 year fix with Aldermore in September. Don't want to fix again as planning on selling the property next year.

Best options on lifetime trackers with no set up fees are HSBC and First Direct. HSBC slightly edging it as First Choice has an exit fee of £149

I have read on here that HSBC can be rather picky. How do First Direct compare in that respect?

Mortgage will be for £100k on a property valued at around £165-170k.

My salary is £40k, my partners is around £15k. I also have a BTL bringing in £850/month (mortgage is £475/month)

We ended up with Aldermore 2 years ago as my partners credit history was not great as her ex had run up debt on a Joint account. She has removed all associations on credit reports.

[Deleted User]

Do you mean First Direct? First Choice do holidays.

swindiff

Ha yes sorry First Direct. Been looking at AI holidays today as well lol

kingstreet

First Direct is HSBC.

Just think of it as an HSBC branch with a 40-XX-XX sort code.

Why did you end up with Aldermore? Your typical Aldermore borrower is not going to be HSBC's vanilla/sub-60% case for a good few years, normally.

Thrugelmir

swindiff wrote: »

Best options on lifetime trackers with no set up fees are HSBC and First Direct. HSBC slightly edging it as First Choice has an exit fee of £149

HSBC won't be fee free.

swindiff

Just going on the mortgage comparison part of this site it shows HSBC as having no setup fees.

Bit complicated why we ended up with Aldermore. My partner and her ex husband split in 2007, he ran up an overdraft on a joint account and never made any attempt to pay it off. Only a couple of grand but fees and interest were accrued on top. My partner was in no position to clear the debt and a charging order was put on the house. I believe this was in his name.

2 years ago, we bought him out of the house, paid off the charging order and applied for a remortgage with the Woolwich. This remortgage also released capital, which along with some savings allowed us to purchase the buy to let property. The Woolwich made us a mortgage offer and everything seemed to be going fine, we were using a broker. However the Woolwich then decided to withdraw their offer, we were worried about losing the buy to let property. Our broker said Aldermore would be almost certain acceptance, as we had been messed around for so long by the Woolwich we really wanted everything to complete asap so went with Aldermore just to be able to complete. We complained to Woolwich (Barclays) who paid us £150 for the inconvenience. Not much of a result in compensation as the repayments were £100 more per month.

There is nothing negative now on my partners Equifax report, just waiting for the Experian one to come through.

sebtomato

swindiff wrote: »

I have read on here that HSBC can be rather picky. How do First Direct compare in that respect?

I would think that First Direct is at least as picky as HSBC.

I took a mortgage with First Direct about 5 years ago: I had a large deposit (50%), and was borrowing less than 2 times my income.

I still had to do two calls of 1 hour each to go through bank statements (never had an overdraft), pay slips (continuous employment history) etc.

I was thinking that I was a very good customer, and therefore what an "average" one might experience!

swindiff

Would we be better off applying for the mortgage just in my name? It is currently a mortgage in both our names although the split of ownership is 100% for my partner and 0% for me. Would there be an issue of just me applying for the mortgage but my partner actually owning the house. As it is only around 2.5x my salary (excluding income from BTL) We will be selling in 12 months and moving into the BTL property.

lee111s

Lenders don't like the mortgage in a different name to the deeds. I think you'd struggle on that one.

swindiff

We are both named on the deeds

swindiff

I have read to only put income down that is actually required for the mortgage, as this reduces the amount of checks required and simplifies the process. As my income should be more than adequate on its own then this is what we would do. If there is any chance that my partners credit history could scupper our chances of getting a mortgage with HSBC then does it make sense for me to apply for the mortgage in just my name? Can this be done without changing ownership to just me?