Lender reviews plz?

KAP0365

Hi, looking for reviews/experience with the following lenders:

Natwest
Virgin Money
Nationwide

Would be interested in reviews regarding: Application timescale, communication, ease of process, valuation accuracy/issues, customer service.

i know we can look at google/Which but they haven’t been updated since before the lockdown, and also would be interested in direct, honest reviews from actual people.

Thanks in advance 

ayvamummy

It all depends on their criteria and if you fit it. 

I can only comment on Virgin Money as I applied directly to them this month. 

10 June - DIP approval (204k) Hard search 
10th June - proceed to full application 
12th June - they emailed me the partially completed app form to print / sign  and return 
- they requested 2 payslips which I sent with form. 

15th June - Application form signed for ( I sent it special delivery)
16th June - they called me to take product fee and tell me it’s off to day 1 underwriting 
17th June - they called me to tell me mortgage offered and will instruct valuation- if all ok the offer will be issued same week.
17th June - EA contact me to tell me valuation is booked for Monday 22nd June. 

So from application to offer it took just 7 days! 

85ltv and mortgage balance £180k ( much less than their dip offered)

KAP0365

Thanks, we are looking at a maximum mortgage of £320k (65% LTV) and have DIPs with all 3. Virgin Money match NatWest on rates but we hadn’t really heard of them before this. Your experience seems to support the reviews we’ve seen online that their process is quick and simple. 

ACG

Do you fit criteria/affordability with them all? 
There are things each of them will do that the other wont. 
I like Natwest and Virgin, not so much a fan of Nationwide but we have placed cases with them that would not have gone with the other 2. 

KAP0365

ACG said:

Do you fit criteria/affordability with them all? 
There are things each of them will do that the other wont. 
I like Natwest and Virgin, not so much a fan of Nationwide but we have placed cases with them that would not have gone with the other 2. 

Apparently so, although NatWest AIP max lending amount was just ridiculously high to be honest, so we don’t think it was an accurate DIP as I can’t imagine they’d really lend us that much (nor would we borrow it). We are leaning towards Virgin Money - weirdly their DIP confirmation says ‘this is intended as a strong indication that we would lend to you’. They have said they would lend 150k over the amount we are actually looking for too, however all soft searches so nothing guaranteed I guess.

ayvamummy

Virgin money dip is hard search. They have a eligibility On their site which is soft. 

KAP0365

ayvamummy said:

Virgin money dip is hard search. They have a eligibility On their site which is soft. 

The eligibility is the same as a DIP that can be shown to lenders, but not a guarantee of loan. The hard search happens at application stage. Or so their advisor told us. We have only gone for the eligibility as we only wanted a DIP, not to start a full application.

ACG

My mortgage is with Virgin, but that is because of how they assess self employed applicants. I would not have been able to get a Mortgage with nationwide/Natwest for the amount I needed. 

KAP0365

@ACG we are both employed, no furlough or anything, six figure combined salaries and six figure deposit so luckily seem to have access to quite a few lenders in the first instance. Our current mortgage is only 150k but we are looking to buy our dream home which would effectively double our mortgage amount. We have accounts with NatWest and they have given us a huge max purchase price on a soft search DIP (over the phone with a personal banker) but it was literally ridiculous. I have a feeling they made it up to get us interested to be honest as they took our affordability figures and phoned back 20 mins later. Virgin seemed more realistic and matched NatWest’s rate of 1.6% over 5 years, which seems good at the moment. For a £300k+ mortgage amount are some lenders easier to get than others, or does it not really matter considering it will only be a max LTV of 65%? 

ayvamummy

KAP0365 said:

ayvamummy said:

Virgin money dip is hard search. They have a eligibility On their site which is soft. 

The eligibility is the same as a DIP that can be shown to lenders, but not a guarantee of loan. The hard search happens at application stage. Or so their advisor told us. We have only gone for the eligibility as we only wanted a DIP, not to start a full application.

Virgin money hard search is at DIP stage. Valid for 3 months not application. I had hard search from dip and it came back instant pass / computer says yes. I rang them and they confirmed this also. The full application didn’t lead to any more searches.   

Good luck 👍🏼

jamielutz1987

@KAP0365 If you don't mind me asking, how/why did you narrow it down to Virgin, NatWest and Nationwide?

When I did an MSE best buy search for borrowing 320k at 65% LTV on a 5year fix, the top products (on a total cost basis) appear to be from Virgin (1.47% with 1k fee), HSBC and Coventry?

Mind you, with all the recent (and ongoing) changes in the market, I don't know how accurate the MSE search engine is.