HSBC Rate matcher

trudiha

I don't know what they are normally like but at the moment HSBC's customer service is appalling. The first phone call was excellent, I spoke to a really nice woman and it all seemed to go really well, I got an agreement in principal. The paper copy never actually turned up but we put in an offer a couple of days later and we weren't too worried about it.

When we phoned when our offer was accepted, again the phone call went well but the paper work didn't arrive. They claim that they sent it out three times, the final time recorded delivery but it never made it to my house, despite all of my other post arriving fine.

Then then told me to go into a branch where they'd be able to print me off a copy so I went into my local branch and waited almost 45 minutes to be told that they couldn't and I'd have to wait for another to be posted.

When the paperwork finally did arrive, nine days after we'd been told it was sent out, the form was full of mistakes. It showed two different prices for the house, errors about the deposit we intended to pay and the kind of mortgage we wanted, it even had mistakes on the insurance applications.

Rather than going back to my local branch were I'd been kept hanging around, I went into one of their main branches to go through the form and provide the paperwork they need. I was told that I was going to be speaking to a 'Mortgage Adviser'. The young woman I got to see was polite and charming but know absolutely nothing about mortgages or the form I was supposed to be signing. After going off to confer with her manager for the third time about when she needed to do next, he finally came over and sat with us. Again he was a very nice man but his flicking through the form and commenting on how much they'd changed since he'd last seen one didn't inspire confidence.

On at least three occasions I had to remind them about different parts of the procedure that they'd missed out; coping my passport, taking a cheque, giving me back my passport.

Before I left I was told that they would fax over the forms and I'd hear from them within a week. I phoned the mortgage office the following day and was told that the forms hadn't arrived yet. I phoned again the day after and was told the same thing. On the third they they finally admitted to having received the forms.

I phoned again five days later and was told that applications were now taking seven days, on the seventh day I was told that applications were now taking nine days.

They called me on the eighth day to tell me that they were rejecting my application because my partner had a payment declined by the bank in January. I explained that this had been an admin error by her landlord and that if they looked on the statement they would see that the bank charges had been refunded back into my partner's account three days later by the landlord but I was told that the decision to reject our application had already been made.

Oh and because I'd been told when they carried out my credit check that both of us were 'squeaky clean' and that as long as we were able to prove that every thing we'd said was true we'd get the mortgage, I'd paid my booking fee up front so all of that cost me £499.

So, unless HSBC is your only choice, pick up your skirts and run.

john_s_2

I posted on the other thread (linked to above) that my back of the envelope calculations predict the charge for this deal. I've just been through that thread and thrown in all the quotes people had been given and my formula holds.

Chuck this into Excel:
A1: Amount to borrow
B1: Interest rate (eg 4.5% = 0.045)
C1: =A1*B1*2
D1: =A1*0.107
E1: =D1-C1
F1: =ROUNDUP(E1-10,-2)-1

This failed on only one of the quotes (it quoted 1599 and I made it 1699.)

So basically they (seem to be) charging 10.7% over the two years. They 'match' your current rate then simply make up the difference in the arrangement fee.

Notes:
The 10.7% is in cell D1. They don't seem to round up to the next £99 when the difference is only £10 over.

Tiddler_2

payless wrote: »

but just think of all the goodwill you are getting by telling your customers about the deal.

Just got off the phone from the Halifax, and believe it or not, they won't accept goodwill as my mortgage payment this month!!:rolleyes:

The equivalent rate of 5.35% is really tough to beat, but there is light at the end of the tunnel if the customers have to pay valuation & legal fees, as some won't want to pay anything upfront, especially if it's tight on the 80% ltv limit.

payless

Tiddler wrote: »

Just got off the phone from the Halifax, and believe it or not, they won't accept goodwill as my mortgage payment this month!!:rolleyes:

The equivalent rate of 5.35% is really tough to beat, but there is light at the end of the tunnel if the customers have to pay valuation & legal fees, as some won't want to pay anything upfront, especially if it's tight on the 80% ltv limit.

thays exactly what my said! But in this marketplace you need to be adaptable to survive-

I deal mainly with existing clients/ direct referrals from them , I'm happy to chat/ meet up for a review - even if this leads ( as it has in last few weeks ) to discussing non-paying mortgage products ( not all HSBC), has provided the odd small insurance case plus it cements the relationship which is particularly important as the "direct banks" will be looking at taking away any side business you may have already arranged ( so possibiliyy of renewals stopping or even clawbacks !)

I might take a different view if I was dealing with high volume new clients ... and in those cases I see an agreed upfront fee ( refunded if commission earned ) as a possible way forward for those of us who are WoM ( and try and be true WoM) and normally Fee free

Lisap73

So i agree with a previous poster.... customer services are rubbish. i get the impression that the people who are on the front line dealing with the enquiries know absolutely nothing about it. hmmm but i finally got to speak to someone who does know something.

So good news. If you are transferring lenders to
HSBC in England and Wales there is no valuation or legal costs. so the only cost is the booking fee. Hefty though it may be. It does appear to be the best option for me at the moment. Phew!!!!!!

aah

i agree the service from the call centre is poor - and I wasnt even going for the headline matching rate

I want the BE + 0.74 rate - no fees no charges. I applied for this on the phone - initial credit check absolutely fine - and got the paperwork pdq - but full of mistakes (this suggests that the operator didnt listen).

Anyway corrected most of the significant errors - but they are still fairly significant, like whether or not the property is my main home...

Just waiting, but if they get it right, this will be a good deal, no point paying fees as the mortgage is comparatively small and the fee is a heavy weight against that, maybe not the case for a larger mortgage.

A.