NatWest Application Declined but Excellent Credit Score

BrettjSmith86

I was wondering if anyone else had encountered similar problems, with NatWest or any other lender, and what their resolution was . . .


So me and my Wife still have a year left on our NatWest mortgage on our current property. We are purchasing a new property and need further borrowing. To avoid the early repayment charge we are trying to port our existing mortgage to the new property. We have been through all the affordability calculations with NatWest, and no problems.


Having been through the application process, we failed the credit check. This seemed strange to me as we bought our current house a year ago with NatWest and there were no problems then, so I checked our credit report with Equifax (which is who NatWest use). Both my Wife and I have excellent credit, and just to double-check I used Experian which gave me the same answer. No late payments, no defaults, absolutely nothing obvious that could result in NatWest declining the application.


Having reported this to NatWest they advised there was nothing they could do. They told me in simple terms that when processing an application you get 3 answers: 1) Yes, lend them money; 2) No, but let's see what we can do or 3) Not a chance. Apparently our answer was number 3 so the mortgage team could do nothing about it.


Something doesn't sound right with this. NatWest are saying they would lend me the money. Separately Equifax have told me our credit scores are excellent, yet put them together and the computer says no. So I kicked up a fuss, spoke to a manager who told me they could raise it as a customer complaint but it might not help.


There are of course other circumstances involved with my application. My limited company has an account with NatWest of which me, my Mother and Father own shares but this is nothing new. And in any case the business is doing well. Like all businesses it dips in and out of it's overdraft and doesn't appear of my credit report anyway.


Bearing in mind NatWest's credit checking facility said yes the year before, and in the year since everything has remained pretty much the same I am at a complete loss as to where to turn.


So, has anyone else experienced this, and what was the resolution?

Thrugelmir

You haven't failed the "credit check" in the manner you think. Your personal circumstances don't meet the lenders current criteria.

Bearing in mind NatWest's credit checking facility said yes the year before, and in the year since everything has remained pretty much the same I am at a complete loss as to where to turn.

Lenders criteria constantly changes. Yesterday has no bearing on your current application.

Speak to a mortgage broker and let them ascertain the best options. Lenders are not uniform. Products are pitched for different segments of the market.

Time4tea

We were declined a mortgage by Santander on the 24/06. We both had excellent credit scores.....


Turns out it was an IT error in their computer system, we only found out cause I pestered them!!!!!!!


Once they admitted fault they agreed my mortgage straight away....


Don't be fobbed off fight it.

MortgageMamma

I agree you should fight to find out what element of your application does not meet their lending criteria.


But in the meantime you should be looking at other options - unless the early repayment charges are an issue if that is the case you may well have to put your plans on the shelf until the end of the product early repayment charges, or look at let to buy perhaps.

BrettjSmith86

But surely their lending criteria would be assessed before reaching the credit check stage?! For example, income, expenditure, time at current address etc. was all checked and approved before they agreed to the mortgage in principle.


It was only at the Equifax credit check stage that we were declined and I can see nothing in my credit report other than positive data which reflects our credit scores. Unless it's something to do with the associated individuals that it doesn't like.

ERICS_MUM

BrettjSmith86 wrote: »

But surely their lending criteria would be assessed before reaching the credit check stage?! For example, income, expenditure, time at current address etc. was all checked and approved before they agreed to the mortgage in principle.


It was only at the Equifax credit check stage that we were declined and I can see nothing in my credit report other than positive data which reflects our credit scores. Unless it's something to do with the associated individuals that it doesn't like.

Everything you listed in the first para is correct but it might be a simple issue such as them entering data incorrectly into the computer that 'makes the decision'. If you want to pursue, ask if they will review the info they fed into your assessment. (Hope this makes sense !)

amnblog

Very unusual and sounds like an error somewhere in the system - possibly mis-keyed information as mentioned above.


Perhaps a good broker could get you a clearer view on what has happened here rather than dealing with the Bank Staff direct.

ACG

Your credit score is worthless, every lender scores your application based on their calculations, not equifax or experians. I have seen someone with multiple defaults have 999...work that one out.

It does sound unusual, but I would try to find out why.
If you are applying for 90% LTV for example, you could try and alter the figures to 89.9%? That might make enough difference to go through.

glentoran99

im 908 on Experian with 3 defaults

ACG

Thats better than mine I think and I have none!

cahillg81

As has been send lenders have internal scorecards.

Have they said you have failed credit scoring or what?

Enlist the help of a broker who can find out more through BDM's dedicated support lines etc.

I had one recently with NatWest were the guy was earning a 6 figure salary had a 999 credit score and was only looking for £324k and it nitially declined due to an "internal marker" turned out this was a default from a limited company he was a director of. We got it sorted and changed to an accept.