FD mortgages - how long for approval?

mrsm

woohoo:j legal Document just plopped onto the door mat

(typical tho, won't be able to SD it back until Tuesday now0

drinkduffbeer

Received a call today from what sounded like an Indian call centre introducing themselves from HSBC /First Direct. As I thought FD only have UK call centres I refused to give him my DOB but instead said I would ring them. He very politely said o.k. and gave me FD’s number

I have made a conscious decision to never give any security details to anyone who rings me.

Anyway rang FD and as suspected the call was genuine’ they explained they have a redemption figure from Abbey valid until the 21st but there is a shortfall off £477 and wanted to know if they could take the money from my 1st account. Obliviously I gave them permission to proceed immediately.

Couple of questions,
As I have only yesterday made my normal mortgage payment to abbey I assume this has not been taken into account and that Abbey will refund some of the interest from this redemption figure.
Second question as the 21st is good Friday I would not think this timescale is possible?

Should have clarified with FD I know but didn’t think

Any ideas?

LostSocks

Last time I redeemed a mortgage, my solicitor overpaid the mortgage lenders, and a few weeks later the mortgage lender sent me a cheque for the overpayment. So I guess it would be similar in your situation. I didn't know they had Indian call centres, I thought part of FD's advertising was that they were UK call centres? Or have I made that bit up?

Mrsm - Not long now your legal docs are here.

totally_confused - I wondered how you were doing as you hadn't been on the thread for a while. Glad to here things are still progressing despite the hiccup.

I have managed to still get my dates mixed up, after speaking to solicitor its 9 working days. So if they do phone to give notice of completion on 25th March, it will be the 7th April we complete. Wish us luck, as handing notice on rental place in this weekend.

drinkduffbeer

LostSocks wrote: »

I didn't know they had Indian call centres, I thought part of FD's advertising was that they were UK call centres? Or have I made that bit up?

Maybe he was an Indian in a UK call centre:rotfl:

boots_babe

I've just read through this whole thread - took a while!

We had ummed and erred over which mortgage to get for our house move, and having found none we were entirely happy, thought we would enquire further about FD, as it's a great offer but everyone had been warning us of long delays etc.

Called last night, they were honest about the delays and I decided we were happy to go with them. Gave all our details over the phone there and then, and our offer letter is in the post.

What I am slightly confused about, is that most people on here seem to have taken a long long time to get their initial offer through. By chance, we transferred our current accounts to FD about 2 months ago, so possibly that sped the process up. I was wondering if anyone else on here was an existing FD customer?

We've been told offer should arrive on Tuesday, only paperwork we need to send is last 3 payslips. Looking at people's timelines on here - very useful to read through - it seems to be about a week after sending back signed offer to getting the valuation sorted. Seems pretty quick, and despite all the issues others seem to be having, we are feeling pretty positive about FD at the moment.

Will keep you posted though!

jem16

boots_babe wrote: »

Called last night, they were honest about the delays and I decided we were happy to go with them. Gave all our details over the phone there and then, and our offer letter is in the post.

This is not likely to be the offer letter but the "agreement in principle" letter. This is the first stage and follows on from giving your deatils over the phone.

What I am slightly confused about, is that most people on here seem to have taken a long long time to get their initial offer through. By chance, we transferred our current accounts to FD about 2 months ago, so possibly that sped the process up. I was wondering if anyone else on here was an existing FD customer?

My son was not already an FD customer and most of the posters on here were not either.

We've been told offer should arrive on Tuesday, only paperwork we need to send is last 3 payslips. Looking at people's timelines on here - very useful to read through - it seems to be about a week after sending back signed offer to getting the valuation sorted. Seems pretty quick, and despite all the issues others seem to be having, we are feeling pretty positive about FD at the moment.

Definitely not the official offer letter is you still have to send payslips. It's basically the application form after you have received an agreement in principle. Once you have signed that and returned it your application will be passed onto the credit team. You will then be credit checked and all going well your mortgage approved. After that it passes to the mortgage team and your offer letter will be drawn up and valuation organised.

As you are a FD customer already you will save a few days as the applications were only passed onto the credit team after the 1st Account and Savings account were set up. Apart from that though everything should follow the other timelines that are already posted here.

boots_babe

Hi jem16, thanks for the quick reply.

It is definitely the offer letter, and not an AIP. I had originally wanted to know how soon we could get AIP, but the person on phone said that in some circumstances they could go straight to offer. Once we had completed the application over the phone, he confirmed that we could go straight to offer, and that this is what has been sent in the post for signatures, along with valuation form.

They have already confirmed our salaries via our First Direct accounts, but need the payslips to complete the paperwork.

We've had such an awful week - our buyers' completion fell through on Monday, but now looks to be back on track thank goodness. It is a relief to have finally selected a mortgage and got the process moving!

EDIT : you mentioned about needing credit checks. We were told that as we are existing customers with straightforward circumstances, we wouldn't actually need a proper credit check, they have only had to complete 'internal checks' instead. They have confirmed that the mortgage has already been fully approved, subject of course to a valuation.

jem16

Sounds like the procedure is very different then for FD customers.

Spamreported

dweeby wrote: »

We're in more or less the exact same position, but we applied for our mortgage before you did. Our time-line (so far) is as follows:

29/1 Spoke with FD, application forms sent out.
30/1 (1 day) Documents received from FD.
31/1 (2 days) Documents returned to FD by special delivery.
5/1 (7 days) More ID requested, posted back same day.
7/1 (9 days) Account confirmed processed, but nothing about the mortgage.
13/2 (15 days) Query raised regarding my wifes income.
15/2 (17 days) banking welcome pack arrived (followed by cashcard etc 16-17/2).
15/2 Faxed back info regarding wifes income.
19/2 (21 days) Breakthrough! Under-writing finished, mortgage offered verbally (subject to valuation). Case passed to mortgage support to organise the valuation, woo-pee!
22/02/08 (25 days) all documentation received back (P60, statements, wage slips etc.).
25/2/08 (28 days) valuer instructed (approx date).
27/02/08 (30 days) valuation took place (approx date).
28/02/08 (31 days) formal mortgage offer letter recieved. Signed and returned "same day".
29/02/08 (32 days) called - valuation fine, offer acceptance still not on our file, told solicitor pack to be sent out 2-3 working days.
5/3/08 (37 days) FD sent out legal pack.
7/3/08 (39 days) solicitor updated me - legal mortgage offer received.

Now we're cooking on gas! and that's probably about me, I might add another update with contracts, exchange, completion - but I might be too busy:beer:

Got there in the end (or at least, I think I've arrived!).

with Abbey, i applied on Monday and got the offer in the post on friday

jem16

Spamreported wrote: »

with Abbey, i applied on Monday and got the offer in the post on friday

Abbey's 5yr fixed rate is 5.59%.

FD's 5yr fised rate is 4.99%

Worth the wait I think.