Any experience of Sainsbury's Mortgages?

Major_Disaster

Hi all,

Trying to sort out a new fix for our mortgage, which is coming to an end in July. Sounds like rates are most likely going to be hiked in May, so looking to lock in a fix before then - so we're a bit limited to places whose offer validity is 6 months (standard seems to be 3).

Currently with First Direct and really happy with the customer service and we can book the rate now - so the simple answer would be to remortgage with them. Phoned up L&C to see if there are any other options and they came back with Sainsbury's. Looking at the numbers they're a reasonable amount cheaper, but I'm a little hesitant as their customer service is a little of an unknown to me.

All Google searches lead to very poor reviews of their personal loans, but I can't find much specific to mortgages - they've only reentered the market in the past year.

So, any experience / advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

ACG

I noticed quite a few rate rises around 2-3 weeks ago.

I would be interested in hearing feedback in Sainsburys mortgages, we do not have access to them yet but I am sure at some point we will.

getmore4less

A quick look some rate/fees are better with FD
Depends on LTV,fix term, mortgage size.

FD has better penalty free overpayment terms.

Major_Disaster

For our LTV on a 2 year fix FD are definitely more expensive (higher rate, lower fees) but does have unlimited over payment and known (first hand) good customer service. Again for us, Sainsbury's has a lower rate, higher fee (which you can add to the balance unlike with FD) and only 10% over payment allowance. It's just the customer service which is the big unknown and is stopping me taking the plunge...

getmore4less

Don't forget the costs to change in the calculations.

Major_Disaster

Yes, with the help of the MSE Mortgage calculator I'm pretty confident Sainbury's is just over £600 cheaper over 2 years. Its just the customer service aspect I'd like some help with. Anyone have any experience with them?

Amst

What customer service do you need from a mortgage provider? As long as you pay each month they can be excellent or awful and you'll never know.

Victoriap

Did you go with sainsbury's? I'm also trying to find out information about there timescales etc..

fewcloudy

Amst wrote: »

What customer service do you need from a mortgage provider? As long as you pay each month they can be excellent or awful and you'll never know.

I guess they might be meaning the length of time it took to complete maybe, or number of hoops they had to jump through etc.

I was more bemused at OP saying they had seen very poor reviews for Sainsbury's personal loans! Can only assume that means - loan application successful=good review, loan application unsuccessful=very poor review?