Feckless mortgage lenders making me really quite cross indeed. **edited by MNHQ at OP's request**

[BipBippadotta]

Has anyone else found Nationwide's mortgage service completely fucking useless?

We got an agreement in principle in July.
Made the official mortgage application.
Sent a load of information. They said there was a 2 day turnaround.
No word from them for a couple of weeks.

Called to chase: they said we didn't have an agreement in principle.
We showed them the AIP they'd sent to us 2 weeks previously.
They couldn't really explain that. Eventually they said it had probably been rescinded. Couldn't say why, or why we hadn't been notified if this was the case.

Went to underwriters who asked for all the information we had already given them. We sent it again. Several days later they asked for the same information but in different formats. We obliged. A few days later they asked for the postal address, email address, phone & fax of our accountant, which was on the letterhead of the certificate she'd sent them. We duly typed it out for them. They said everything was being held up because our accountant wasn't replying to their emails. My accountant tells me she hasn't had any emails from them. Eventually Nationwide admits they haven't sent her any emails as they couldn't find her email address (which I'd sent them 3 times by this point).

Got an email today to say our mortgage has been approved! Great news. I asked for official confirmation. They sent me an agreement in principle. The same one we'd had last month, dated 18 July. So, our mortgage had not in fact been approved at all. We've just gone back to where we started a month ago, before they randomly 'rescinded' our AIP without telling us.

They now want us to have the same phone appointment we had last month to apply for a mortgage, and have asked AGAIN to see all the information we've already provided them with TWICE.

We've been told by one person that we can port our mortgage and by another person that we can't; we've been told by 4 different people either that we will or won't have to pay an early repayment fee of anything from £6k to £8k.

I am so stressed - our sellers desperately need to move as their children are starting school in a new city in September, and we've been hassled out of our house by our buyers so we're going to be in temporary accommodation for at least a month, and we may not know for weeks yet whether we can even buy our new place because Nationwide can't tell their arse from their elbow. Any time we ask to speak to a manager we're told there aren't any (which doesn't surprise me in the slightest).

Are all mortgage lenders like this, or is Nationwide a special beacon of incompetence?

[dynevoran]

I think they are all rubbish but that is just ridiculous. I'm so sorry you're dealing with that. Personally I'd go to a different lender. Santander weren't v quick but they were clear and competent.

[ThymeForTea]

I've got a NW but I went through a lovely broker who held my hand from the beginning to completion.

I didn't deal with NW directly at all but ended up with a FAb mortgage and all the insurances sorted.

PM me for details ... You won't find a nicer person

[Notyetthere]

I think it is pure luck if everything goes well. We currently have a NW mortgage which we applied for 3 years ago and the whole process went very smoothly, no hiccups. However, we had read about so many disaster stories like yours beforehand and we were almost expecting something to go wrong.

My SIL and her DH are going through a similar nightmare to yours with HSBC.

[BaronessBomburst]

Are you dealing with the Bournemouth office?

[quicklydecides]

So do you actually want to die?
Or was that a funny joke?
Ha ha ha...
Or just an expression, lighten up?
Yuck

[MrsBungle]

Wow that sounds awful. I have just had mortgage offer from Halifax. Offer received days after valuation. They required a few bit of information, all dealt with very quickly and efficiently. I've been impressed with them.

[BipBippadotta]

Sorry for my careless wording quickly. I've reported my post and asked for it to be edited, and the reference to 'going insane' to be removed for good measure. Don't want to offend anyone. With the exception of my bloody mortgage advisor.

I had a broker, who was lovely, but then we were handed over to NW direct who have been an utter shitshow.

Somewhat reassured, but also depressed, to hear it is a common occurrence at other banks as well.

[ThymeForTea]

The broker will get her commission with or doing any work! Please get the details for mine

[greathat]

First direct are very good...

[TremoloGreen]

We had a similar experience with NW back when we tried to get our first mortgage. An official complaint meant it got escalated to a competent IIRC.

Really if you haven't paid any fees out yet I would vote with your feet. Lots of good deals to be had atm.

Your broker should be dealing with this for you. You really need a new broker who will do their job properly. Lots will do it for free, they get their commission from the bank. They may well try to sell you mortgage protection but you don't have to buy anything you don't want.

[BipBippadotta]

Thyme will PM you for your broker's deets! Though we finally had a conversation with someone faintly lucid at NW this afternoon. They're organising a valuation, which seems like progress, and should hopefully keep our sellers from dumping us for a cash buyer who can move more quickly.

[ThymeForTea]

Tremolo is right.

Mine was my rock through the whole process.

We had a small flat, wanted to re-mortgage, found we had equity, I was a bit nervous of the whole buying process.

We've now got a 4 bedroom house and a garden, a new business idea ... Etc

A good mortgage broker is worth weight in gold - as they help with insurance and things too.

[NotCitrus]

A good mortgage broker is great - ours couldn't get us a better rate than I could find on the high street last time, but having him chase NaffWest was worth a lot, and giving him tea while he told Santander why we weren't staying with them was priceless!

[ILoveMyMonkey]

We had a NW mortgage, tried to port it, they were fricking useless and took ages to do anything so we took the hit and paid the early exit fee and went to Natwest who took just 3 weeks from initial conversation to fully approved mortgage (and the monthly repayments actually went down so paying the early exit fee was worth it).

[FeedMyFaceWithJaffaCakes]

We had a one day approval with HSBC.
Was fabulous.
And after that the girl from HSBC was excellent and sorting out all insurances etc.

[GinIsIn]

Halifax are fab, we had it all approved within 2 days and they were really helpful - I would try them!

[Lilmisskittykat]

My mortgage is with nationwide ... Always found them great with great rates especially if you bank with them too.

Sounds like you just got a rubbish bod

[JigglypuffsCaptor]

I had a mortgage broker, he was fantastic!

I've heard horror stories about NW and I used to work in Banking for a major high street bank.

[wowfudge]

If Nationwide haven't done a valuation then you won't have a mortgage offer, or you'll have one subject to survey. You are further forward than AIP.

We had a horrendous experience with HSBC. Their online system kept losing all our details at the stage where we'd done everything we could. In the end, after several attempts, someone had to re-key the whole thing into their old system. We've since found out that during this period when their systems kept falling over, they carried out five hard credit checks on both of us. We only found out that gem out recently.

[Sooverthis]

Nationwide were absolutely dreadful with us two years ago, they lost paperwork, filed it under wrong dates and we almost lost the property because of them. When we finally got it all through it wasn't even the deal we had agreed on but we were so desperate to get it done we took it anyway.

[AGrinWithoutACat]

I ranted had strong words with Nationwide when they asked me to complete a customer sat survey

We had an agreement in principle
They asked for the usual paperwork
They asked for more paperwork
They offered us a mortgage ...
If we took out house insurance with the company that was currently insuring the house we were buying
There was no insurance in place (empty building, no mortgage so risky for the prev owners but that was their choice)
We told nationwide this - they said get insurance with the company venders had last used - we said we can't we are too young (saga) they said find a policy that's is underwritten by the comp that underwrite sagas insurance

I said something rude and we got a mortgage through Halifax in less than 2 weeks (and it was cheaper)

[AGrinWithoutACat]

I ranted had strong words with Nationwide when they asked me to complete a customer sat survey

We had an agreement in principle
They asked for the usual paperwork
They asked for more paperwork
They offered us a mortgage ...
If we took out house insurance with the company that was currently insuring the house we were buying
There was no insurance in place (empty building, no mortgage so risky for the prev owners but that was their choice)
We told nationwide this - they said get insurance with the company venders had last used - we said we can't we are too young (saga) they said find a policy that's is underwritten by the comp that underwrite sagas insurance

I said something rude and we got a mortgage through Halifax in less than 2 weeks (and it was cheaper)

[AGrinWithoutACat]

Oops double post

[HarryPottersMagicWand]

We had a mortgage with NW, never had a problem, paid it off early, good customers etc etc. Then we tried to get another one with them when we were moving. They were ridiculous. Wanted paperwork after paperwork. Said we could borrow 105k originally, we applied for way less anyway, had huge deposit. They were a total nightmare and said we could only borrow 39k in the end! So much faffing and too-ing and fro-ing that we ditched them, went through London and Country, applied to Halifax, all sorted very quickly and nearly double the amount leant that NW were willing to lend.

[BipBippadotta]

Desperately wishing now that I'd gone with Halifax. Naively we thought it might be easier to stick with Nationwide, as we already have a mortgage with them. How hard could it be to port our existing mortgage to a house of the exactly equivalent value?

Next instalment in the saga is some numpty has mis-keyed in my date of birth (despite asking me to confirm it 100 thousand times every time I speak to them on the phone) and I now have to go down to a Nationwide branch with my passport to prove to them that my birthday is when I've always said it was. And hope to God they don't mis-key it again.

Having told us last week they'd instructed the valuation, they admitted Friday that they hadn't. They also claimed we hadn't submitted our accountant's certificates, which our long-suffering accountant has now sent them FOUR times in 3 different formats, copying us in so we know they've gone to the right place.

In 2 weeks we will be living in a fucking Airbnb, having sold our house, with no idea whether we will actually be able to buy the house we want, or whether NW will randomly refuse us a mortgage for no reason.

I would pull the plug and try to go with Halifax, but I have a terrible feeling that Nationwide will have done credit checks on us about 15 thousand times throughout all this and savaged our credit rating so nobody will ever lend to us again.