To think nationwide are taking the pee

[Meekonsandwich]

I swear to George I'm going to lose my skittles if any thing else goes wrong with this mortgage application.

We went to 3 local banks originally,

Lloyds told us we could only get a 10% mortgage which as our deposit was 5% we didn't accept. They did a soft credit search, no bother.

Nat west said they didn't open any time other than 9 -5 which as both of us work was going to be difficult.

Then we get to nationwide.
First "mortgage advisor appointment"
Was actually a lady showing us the mortgage calculator on the website that we did at home.
Fine okay but I wish they hadn't wasted out time telling us it was with a mortgage advisor when it actually wasn't. She said she would set us up an appointment with the mortgage advisor.

We then discover they've done a hard credit check. Taking out score down to good instead of excellent. With no warning it was going to do this. This is vital later in the story.

Okay. We go to the appointment and it's a video link. Which is fine (bollocks to the advert that says they're investing in their branches because they believe that doing business face to face is important)

anyway. The meeting goes well and we give our confidential documents to a lady to scan to the advisor on the video link. He says they can't approve it as they need to look into a few things so it's pending and they'll get back to us in no more than 3 days.

1 week later.
We ring and they say they have not received our documents .
Well then who the heck did she send them too?!
We send them again. Attaching all the documents into the email.

Magically they can't find them somehow so we send them again.

They they want certain pages they can't find AGAIN.

Weeks pass. We ring again.
"Oh yes, we wanted to know what this large direct debit that goes out every month is"
" that would be the rent."
"Ah. And we have no proof of your deposit"
"See the thousands sitting in my bank account??"
"Yes"
"That would be it."

A week goes by. We ring again.

"Ohhh were sorry but your application has been closed. There was no activity for a certain amount of time"

WTF.
So she has to write to somebody to get it opened again.
We ring AGAIN.
Our application has been declined.

Why?
Our credit score wasn't good enough?

Why? Because their systems changed and they did another hard credit check for no reason what so ever so our score took a beating.

So now we have to appeal.

In the mean time, we started this process two months ago, our land lady wants to sell and our tenancy agreement ends mid may.
So we have 6 weeks to sort it out or find another rental which accepts pets and move!!!

Arrrgggg I'm pulling my hair out here!!!!!
Im already planning a huge complaint once it's all done but how do I go about this? Is there anything else we can do?!?!

I can't advise I'm afraid. But have also experienced issues with that bunch of shit heads. Hubby earns 70k+. Not overtime, but shift premium is some of it, but they turn it down "because it's not guaranteed"!!! Ffs.

Have you tried talking to a broker? They might be able to find an alternative lender, and should also take on any chasing that needs to be done for your application to meet the deadline.

Go straight to the Nationwide complaints dept. now. The reason being that at the moment you are potential customer (aka "source of income") and valuable to them: someone's performance review depends on hooking and reeling you in winning your business.

Your post above can be copied and pasted as the initial email, preferably as a follow up to a telephone call.

Good luck!

We've always used a broker. They do all the chasing and make sure everything is right before the application.

On a slightly different note nationwide are very slow as we found when applying direct to add some onto our mortgage.

Nationwide employee here, but I'm on mat leave so I can't help. But the "hard" credit check was part of your decision in principle, as part of completing this we read out a big long script which tells you how and why we will be credit scoring you so possibly you ignored this bit/didn't listen/didn't understand etc. Doesn't sound like you've had the best experience since then (unfortunately nationwide NOW -videolink service-has a lot of new employees and this can mean not the best service) i would arrange an appt with a branch based mortgage consultant or complain via the branch manager of the branch you visited, this will get it sorted quicker than going to head office constantly where you speak to someone different everytime. Good luck.

Why are you not using a broker to get you the best deal, rather than putting yourself through all this grief? An independent IFA will also often work evenings or Saturdays and come to your home so you don't have to worry about the 9-5 aspect.

There's no such thing as a credit 'score'.

You have your credit history that the underwriters will see.

They do sound quite shoddy generally though.

Thanks for your advice everyone :)

Happy, thanks for clafication on the credit check,
I am deaf and was relying on my partner and he is sure they said they would do a check but didn't know it would affect our score, it was a surprise when our score had been affected, but it could have been that he heard "credit check" and thought Lloyds did a soft one so nationwide would too.

Why is it nationwide do a hard one as part of the decision in principle? We got a d.I.p from Lloyds without one?

Thanks for the advice about head office and best of luck with the maternity leave :)

The mortgage broker Is a good idea, but with our much lower credit score now, who's going to accept us??

Thanks for your help I'm getting into their complaints dept.

I agree with previous posters.
Sack off all that shit and go to an independent broker.

There may not be a credit score,
But we went from excellent to average and they said that was the reason we got declined?

Our credit history has paid off cars and credit cards on it. Nothing live?

Nationwide are generally shit in my experience although my experience isn't mortgage related

Apologies to PP but i find most of their staff woefully ignorant of their own products and processes

This is where you need to go to a proper lender that allows staff to override credit searches where necessary. Try HSBC's 24 hour service. They will override the search using common sense but do have higher affordability criteria.

London & Country have arranged two mortgages for me and have been excellent. They find the best deals and do much of the donkey work and their online systems mean you can see what is happening at every stage. I also used the online conveyancing service they recommend which enable me to send all documentation electronically and, again, kept me fully informed all the way through.

I am currently with Nationwide actually but didn't do anything direct with them, it was all via L&C so it hardly mattered which company I ended up with. I have to say that since this mortgage completed, Nationwide have been very helpful and efficient whenever I have contacted them with queries.

Hopw you get sorted out.

I used to use a broker until about 1998, now use online comparison sites to see which mortgage is likely to suit, without them doing credit checks.
I set up a mortgage over the phone with First Direct, when had not been a customer previously (plus some sending of documents afterwards, but all happened smoothly and quickly).

Nationwide doing two credit checks is not the reason your mortgage was declined. Go to a broker. You can explain that Nationwide have varied out credit checks but you are not going with them due to their shoddy service. If necessary the broker can explain this to an underwriter. It is highly unlikely to stop you getting a mortgage elsewhere.

One thing brokers specialise in is finding a lender who will accept your credit score - I would definitely start the ball rolling by finding a broker, in case you don't get anywhere with your Nationwide complaint.

It is very clearly explained online and in the verbal T&Cs that they will do a hard check, sorry. Reason for that is due to it being a building society, not a bank, therefore are MUCH more risk averse and generally take no chances and little personal autonomy of staff. Heavily system reliant. It's a source of endless frustration for customers and staff alike.

Second the advice of going to complaints dept NOW, not when it's all done and dusted. They do take these things very seriously.

Nationwide took 3 weeks to send out my debit card. I rang them after a week enquiring where it was, and put in a complaint. The guy started arguing with me, I shit you not.

Nottingham Building Society has whole of market mortgages. Have a look on their website.

Had problems too with Nationwide last year.
Only wanted to change to another fixed rate as mine was about to finish (all with Nationwide). We knew exactly which deal we wanted to change to but they still made us have a 1 hour video link appointment telling us nothing that we didn't know already.
They gave us some incorrect information, (we thought they were wrong but they kept insisting they were right) charged us a £2500 admin charge which to ages to get removed.

I can't wait for this mortgage to be finished so that I can move away from Nationwide.

Everyone will have a problem with one bank/building society or another unfortunately and love voicing their opinions i.e thread is about mortgages yet someone mentions their late debit card etc. We do a hard credit check as this is realistic, lloyds etc may do a "soft" check but much more likely to decline you later than we will. Good luck OP. Also just to let you know if we did 2 credit checks on 1 day they merge together anyway so no negative impact. You can request/complain to have one of the credit checks removed if 2 had been done in error on different days (although this is very rare) good luck OP.

Videos in banks/building societies have come into being following all the misselling scandals - it's so you can't be fed wrong/misleading information by an individual advisor keen to hit a sales target. I think they're a good thing - I'd rather put up with sitting through something I already know than be fed a load of rubbish that later leaves me out of pocket.

When my marriage broke up I thought I was doing the responsible thing and told them.

All I got back was a snide voice (and yes it was, still remember the tone) telling that if I couldn't afford the mortgage they'd be going straight for repossession.

Well thanks for fuck all Natiowide, and thank you for being brilliant with me RBS (and I've never missed a payment in my life)

No bank or building society is even allowed to go "straight for reposession" Foslady what a load of rubbish..

We found avoiding branch staff and dealing exclusively with online /call centre staff for us a more consistent less bat shit crazy approach from nationwide.That was four years ago now branch staff tried to deny us because dh puts too much in his pension, absolutely no movement when I pointed out he could change that at any time call centre staff didn't bat an eyelid.

Use a broker. Take along your credit score and they will look into mortgages that you will be approved for. Some of them charge a fee, some just take commission from the lender. In either case, a hassle-free application is worth it. They have experience and contacts and will not put you forward for mortgages unless they know you will (almost certainly) be accepted. I've known lots of people who have used a broker and not a single one was declined for the mortgage that their broker recommended.

If your (now!) poor credit score directly affects your ability to get a mortgage, you can get it fixed but will take time. I think you need to think about a short-term rental in any case - 6 weeks does not give you much leeway because even a straightforward (very, very straightforward) purchase can take longer than that, speaking from personal experience (first time buyer, mortgage approved after a week, vacant property I was buying, four and a half months to complete!!!).

In my experience Nationwide are pretty good, but you've been badly let down here.