Broker deal vs First Direct

squarehead94

Hi all.

So I locked in a rate with a broker (Fluid) yesterday, best deal they could get me was Nationwide 4.79% 5 year fix, 120k purchase with 20k deposit. thats all fine. I enquired about a rate I'd seen with First Direct, 4.45% and he advised that I didn't pass the affordability assessment for HSBC which is part of First Direct. He did advise that I could apply for an AIP with them for peace of mind, but it would be unlikely that I would be accepted.

Well I spoke to First Direct today and I was accepted, I have my AIP. They are sending out paperwork for me to complete & return but I did enquire about potential price rises & the wait time for an appointment, They just advised they dont expect prices to go up & they have already gone up recently. Still not fully convinced that they wont increase further.

Anyway, I have already received the paperwork from the broker with Nationwide deal and he advised me that I can pull out of that deal at any time up until a reasonable time before contracts are due to exchange. I wanted to check here if this sounds correct, and whether I'd be better off just sticking with the Nationwide deal (£573pm vs 553pm with First Direct)

and also, would I even be able to complete 2 lots of paperwork, 1 for nationwide and 1 for First Direct? Wouldn't this harm my credit file?

Thanks in advance,
Ste

K_S

@squarehead94 If you're confident about the FD deal and it's cheaper than the NW product overall, then there's no real reason to apply for both mortgages tbh, you could just apply for the FD one.

If you want to hedge your bets or have some doubt about qualifying for FD, the broker will be able to 'reserve' your Nationwide product/rate for 90 days at DIP stage without putting in a full app. That way if your FD app doesn't go through due to whatever reason, you still have the reserved Nationwide rate as backup and can proceed with that application.

squarehead94 said:

Hi all.

So I locked in a rate with a broker (Fluid) yesterday, best deal they could get me was Nationwide 4.79% 5 year fix, 120k purchase with 20k deposit. thats all fine. I enquired about a rate I'd seen with First Direct, 4.45% and he advised that I didn't pass the affordability assessment for HSBC which is part of First Direct. He did advise that I could apply for an AIP with them for peace of mind, but it would be unlikely that I would be accepted.

Well I spoke to First Direct today and I was accepted, I have my AIP. They are sending out paperwork for me to complete & return but I did enquire about potential price rises & the wait time for an appointment, They just advised they dont expect prices to go up & they have already gone up recently. Still not fully convinced that they wont increase further.

Anyway, I have already received the paperwork from the broker with Nationwide deal and he advised me that I can pull out of that deal at any time up until a reasonable time before contracts are due to exchange. I wanted to check here if this sounds correct, and whether I'd be better off just sticking with the Nationwide deal (£573pm vs 553pm with First Direct)

and also, would I even be able to complete 2 lots of paperwork, 1 for nationwide and 1 for First Direct? Wouldn't this harm my credit file?

Thanks in advance,
Ste

squarehead94

K_S said:

@squarehead94 If you're confident about the FD deal and it's cheaper than the NW product overall, then there's no real reason to apply for both mortgages tbh, you could just apply for the FD one.

If you want to hedge your bets or have some doubt about qualifying for FD, the broker will be able to 'reserve' your Nationwide product/rate for 90 days at DIP stage without putting in a full app. That way if your FD app doesn't go through due to whatever reason, you still have the reserved Nationwide rate as backup and can proceed with that application.

Hi,

broker has come back to me today & advised that my nationwide offer "will generally be safe for a week" as they need to get it over to nationwide "ASAP so they can do the underwriting required on the case to get us the mortgage offer" does this sound normal? I expected I would have had longer than 1 week...

simon_or

I'm sure what K_S said is possible but in reality can you blame the broker for being reluctant to do unpaid donkey work just so you can have a backup to your Firstdirect mortgage rate?

Neilos9

Love that the FD guy suggests rates won't rise and be safe as they have just gone up, obviously trained in Economics before doing his CeMap......I'm not s convinced.....

squarehead94

so dont know what to do, price is still locked in with nationwide via broker, had my docs accepted by First Direct and awaiting underwriters decision before I can even book a mortgage app with them (states within 7 days for the decision from underwriter) upon speaking to FD they say its usually a lot quicker than 7 days however. Also queried wait times for appointments and again they advised these are usually around 5 days or so. So potentially 10 days wait, in which time their rates could shoot up meanwhile I lose my deal with Nationwide... sending anxiety into overdrive! what should I do?

K_S

@squarehead99 Sorry it's not clear to me, at what stage is the FD rate secured? Has it not been secured yet?

squarehead94 said:

so dont know what to do, price is still locked in with nationwide via broker, had my docs accepted by First Direct and awaiting underwriters decision before I can even book a mortgage app with them (states within 7 days for the decision from underwriter) upon speaking to FD they say its usually a lot quicker than 7 days however. Also queried wait times for appointments and again they advised these are usually around 5 days or so. So potentially 10 days wait, in which time their rates could shoot up meanwhile I lose my deal with Nationwide... sending anxiety into overdrive! what should I do?

squarehead94

K_S said:

@squarehead99 Sorry it's not clear to me, at what stage is the FD rate secured? Has it not been secured yet?

squarehead94 said:

so dont know what to do, price is still locked in with nationwide via broker, had my docs accepted by First Direct and awaiting underwriters decision before I can even book a mortgage app with them (states within 7 days for the decision from underwriter) upon speaking to FD they say its usually a lot quicker than 7 days however. Also queried wait times for appointments and again they advised these are usually around 5 days or so. So potentially 10 days wait, in which time their rates could shoot up meanwhile I lose my deal with Nationwide... sending anxiety into overdrive! what should I do?

No, I asked this today and despite having an AIP they advised no rates are secured until my mortgage appt. Which could obviously be in about 10 days. Part of me is thinking just go with nationwide for the sake of £10-20 a month and secure it sooner (as I have a rate locked in with them via the broker) 

Neilos9

why only part of you....if it takes 10 days to get you a rate, how quickly do you think the mortgage survey and offer will take, added stress for a tenner, no thank you.

squarehead94

Neilos9 said:

why only part of you....if it takes 10 days to get you a rate, how quickly do you think the mortgage survey and offer will take, added stress for a tenner, no thank you.

To be fair I hear nothing but good things about first direct, and mainly the no cap on overpayments is what was pulling me towards them Vs the 10% annual cap with nationwide. The tenner a month isn't the biggest factor for me as I say. I'm sure both nationwide and first direct are fine just first direct has a couple of benefits that suited me more overall

K_S

squarehead94 said:

K_S said:

@squarehead99 Sorry it's not clear to me, at what stage is the FD rate secured? Has it not been secured yet?

squarehead94 said:

so dont know what to do, price is still locked in with nationwide via broker, had my docs accepted by First Direct and awaiting underwriters decision before I can even book a mortgage app with them (states within 7 days for the decision from underwriter) upon speaking to FD they say its usually a lot quicker than 7 days however. Also queried wait times for appointments and again they advised these are usually around 5 days or so. So potentially 10 days wait, in which time their rates could shoot up meanwhile I lose my deal with Nationwide... sending anxiety into overdrive! what should I do?

No, I asked this today and despite having an AIP they advised no rates are secured until my mortgage appt. Which could obviously be in about 10 days. Part of me is thinking just go with nationwide for the sake of £10-20 a month and secure it sooner (as I have a rate locked in with them via the broker) 

@squarehead94 In that case, from a rate point of view, you might not have this quandary in 10 days time. HSBC (FD's parent company) is upping rates from Monday, and while FD could hold out a bit longer (as unlike HSBC it can throttle/delay the volume of direct applications fairly easily) I would be surprised if the rates they offered today were unchanged in 10 days time.

I'm not entirely clear what you mean by the part in bold above as I read it as saying that you have a rate locked in but it isn't secured. I would assume both to mean the same?

With Nationwide, there are two ways to secure a product/rate (subject to underwriting) -
- the first is the broker doing a DIP, getting a Yes and then 'reserving' a specific product/rate for 90 days
- the second is the broker actually submitting a full mortgage application

Once you have the above then irrespective of whether Nationwide ups rates (like they did yesterday for some products), your product/rate is safe subject to full underwriting.