Remortgaging through First Direct - Painful experience?

sebtomato

Hi,

I have been a First Direct customer, with a mortgage, for 8 years now, paying my salary to my current account each month. always paying my mortgage on time, never overdrawn etc.

Today, I called to see if I could change my mortgage (remaining balance, very low LTV) to a new one (better rate), and I was amazed by the number of questions being asked on the phone, for more than 30 minutes, just to get an approval in principles (next step would be a call with one of their mortgage advisers for 1.5 hours...).

Basically, it's as if I was not already a customer or didn't have a mortgage with them already. I was naive enough to expect the switch to be done with a 10 minute call.

Is that a common experience from other people??

[Deleted User]

By phoning them and asking for what deals were available you switched the process to an Advised level of service. Any lender will do what FD have done.

Conversely, you may have been able to log on to the mortgage online, select an option that you wanted and be done in 2 minutes

If you want advice you have to respect that it takes time to get enough information to give that advice.
If you just wanted to select a new deal from ones shown to you, you shouod have done it online

whambar

I have done both a remortgage and a move with FD

IIRC there are 2 choices either online self-service none advised or if by telephone only advised. yes in both my cases a first call to sound out details to allow a DiP then a further deeper detail call

For remortgage it was maybe 25mins and 40 mins and for our move about 25mins and 90 mins and then 30 mins but remortgage was my sole name the move was joint names as I got married and OH is not an FD customer so full credit check etc for her and they had to set up as an account holder but no account

Whilst it took some time they were giving me £200k so TBH I’m glad that they were thorough they also took time to fully explain all options and stress test for repayment and will advise to overpay or use shorter term to reduce overall cost if budget supports

Personally I found them excellent offer was emailed within 48 hrs with postal follow up. I had to supply one payslip as my pay into bank was higher than my salary suggest as my expenses paid into salary so it was just to prove no other docs required other half was ID proofs and 3 payslips. All sorted quick mid level survey was £300, no arrangement fee etc and a decent 10yr fixed rate in my case - which again they pointed out other terms cheaper (I wanted a 10) the follow up letter summarised everything we discussed

Personally I’d say diligent but excellent and pain free from a mortgage point of view. Can also see balance etc and make unlimited overpayments no penalty from mobile app or online

sebtomato

Deleted_User wrote: »

By phoning them and asking for what deals were available you switched the process to an Advised level of service. Any lender will do what FD have done.

Conversely, you may have been able to log on to the mortgage online, select an option that you wanted and be done in 2 minutes

If you want advice you have to respect that it takes time to get enough information to give that advice.
If you just wanted to select a new deal from ones shown to you, you shouod have done it online

They surely didn't mention that going online would be quicker, and I can't log from my account and switch/apply for a mortgage, so I am not sure an online application would avoid all those questions...

I didn't ask for advice, and they didn't offer any on that initial call anyway. The initial 30 minute call was just to confirm affordability and to get an agreement in principles for a replacement mortgage. The call with their mortgage advisers, as the next step, is when specific mortgages are discussed.
Actually, I don't need their advice at all: I know which mortgage product I want to switch to, understand the rate, fees etc. I can also figure out myself that the no fee product with a slighly higher rate is better for my circumstances.

sebtomato

I am still surprised by the amount of time it's likely to take to make a pretty straightforward switch. It's almost as painful as the original mortgage application that was for an offset mortgage (so basically a more risky interest-only product), for a much larger amount, longer duration, much higher salary multiplier at the time, and without the track record they now have on me as a banking customer. They have estimated that the mortgage switch could take 3 to 4 weeks.

Diligent: for sure
Over-complicated: absolutely! I don't know if it's intentional, to deter people on less favourable mortgages (from a customer view-point) from switching.

Thrugelmir

sebtomato wrote: »

Diligent: for sure
Over-complicated: absolutely! I don't know if it's intentional, to deter people on less favourable mortgages (from a customer view-point) from switching.

We live in a highly regulated world where the lenders are required to lend responsibility or face the consequences. Likewise customers 20 years later suddenly have recollections of being advised of something that they now regret doing, and want compensation for same. Lenders are between a rock and a hard place.

sebtomato

Thrugelmir wrote: »

We live in a highly regulated world where the lenders are required to lend responsibility or face the consequences. Likewise customers 20 years later suddenly have recollections of being advised of something that they now regret doing, and want compensation for same. Lenders are between a rock and a hard place.

Sure, I understand if it were for a new customer.

But for an existing customer moving to a less risky product, it shouldn't take that long. It feels very inefficient.

For instance:

when they ask me over the phone what my average monthly salary/income is, when it has been paid to their current account for more than 5 years, it seems very strange. They may as well look at the facts over many years as opposed to believe what I am saying on a call.

when they ask about details of the property to have a mortgage on, well, they already have those! Same property...

Based on the questions they asked, I think the mortgage application process is exactly the same for existing customers or new customers.

kingstreet

This is a customer retention product/product transfer, not a remortgage so the lender is stuck with the liability regardless of what has happened since application.

(IMHO) The advice process is/should only be invoked if there is a request for increased borrowing or a reduction in the term which would see an increase in the monthly payments.

Buttermint

It does seem to differ between lenders though. I’ve just done a rate switch at the end of my current deal. The lender explained the ways of doing so over the phone, either that I could speak to a mortgage advisor and therefore it’d be an advised sale or I could go online if I felt comfortable making my own decision.

There wouldn’t be any affordability checks either way as we weren’t borrowing more or making any changes to the term of the mortgage etc. But the advised route would take 30-90 minutes as the MA would need to ask questions about our plans etc in order to be able to recommend a product. But we wouldn’t be asked about income and so on. Went down the online route as personally I knew exactly what we wanted to do.

For a simple rate switch it does seem a bit much and over & above the regulators requirements to go into so much detail.

SonOf

I don't know if it's intentional, to deter people on less favourable mortgages (from a customer view-point) from switching.

So, you think it has nothing to do with increased regulation and increased protection from claims companies putting in fraudulent/try-it-on complaints about being missold mortgages?

Also, First Direct have always been a cherry picker and more stringent on their lending. They are well known for it. So, there should be an expectation of more questioning and process with First Direct compared with other lenders.

sebtomato

SonOf wrote: »

So, you think it has nothing to do with increased regulation and increased protection from claims companies putting in fraudulent/try-it-on complaints about being missold mortgages?

So you think asking people questions on the phone is better than looking at actual financial history data they have access to??

SonOf wrote: »

Also, First Direct have always been a cherry picker and more stringent on their lending. They are well known for it. So, there should be an expectation of more questioning and process with First Direct compared with other lenders.

You seem to be missing the point a bit: I am already a customer! I have already been "cherry picked"! I am moving to a lower risk mortgage!