Mortgage declined

[Theswaggyotter]

We are remortgaging and applied for mortgage with first direct which was declined. Our credit check was fine but they were not willing to lend us the amount of mortgage we need - in fact they said they would only lend us £200k LESS than our existing mortgage. When we asked why they said our outgoings were too high.
We have more than £500 per month that is not spent so are a bit unsure what the problem was
So my question is are first direct more stringent than other lenders? It seems strange to have such a difference in what one lender is prepared to loan compared to another. Would we be better to go through a mortgage broker who might be able to find a lender who will actually be willing to lend the amount we need?
Thanks for reading

QuiteLikely5 oh, dear, what rate are you suggesting HSBC are offering? What %? And I'll compare it to what our broker offered.

Maybe it's not such a good deal?
Dh and I thought it was.

I tried to remortgage with HSBC and it took them over a year to put it through!! Due to identify checks. A year!! Because of this I fell into the SVR which was much higher than my previous fixed rate - they've literally cost me thousands and thousands of pounds.

Oblomov

You can get rates at 1% the ten year fixed is triple that

First Direct have a very strict lending criteria

I heard it’s about this. They are super fast with approvals less than a week if you are one of those customers with a very low LTV. We have been going on our own for a while now without a broker, but we are less than 20% LTV. This will give you an idea when you can skip the broker. At this stage, going via the broker doesnt give me any better deals.

waxedlyrical we have been with HSBC for the last two times, and the turn is very fast too. I really don’t think it’s income, but LTV. So they suit those of us who are older? They don’t want to have much risk at all I think!

My LTV is reasonable, approx 70% equity in house. It's a fairly large house in London though so potentially the larger sums of money are an issue. I'm only 30 so spreading over a longer period as I'll probably be working until I'm 70!

I believe the main issues were on name changes and identity checks. But a year to switch deal is ridiculous. I am going through their complaints process now due to their complete incompetence.

Not mortgage related but I have just had my own FD experience. I work 2 days a week a fair distance away and the rest from home. The lady on the phone effectively accused me of lying about my place of residence and that it was 'ridiculous' I travelled so far. I repeatedly asked why she needed this information for a current account application but she wouldn't confirm. In the end, I had to tell her what felt my life story as to why I had moved to the countryside to get her to unfreeze the application. No other lender / bank etc has ever queried and I've been in the same job for years.

Be all and end all is that hearing from friends etc, FD are a really stringent lender who like to dot the i's and cross the t's. If you flag up even a little on the system, they seem to refuse applications outright.

Ive just had an AIP from First Direct but they’re offering to lend me 100k less than NatWest. This is annoying as I need the extra really but I don’t want to leave my 10 year FD deal early.

I’ve declined the AIP and they’re looking into it now. My LTV is about 40:60.

I remember FD making us jump through hoops to get a relatively small mortgage. We'd banked with them for years, and they went through our statements with a fine tooth comb, asking us to explain what it was we'd had a refund of £12.99 for in John Lewis, why we'd made two purchases from Amazon in one day three months ago i.e. really awkward things that were difficult to remember when we were put on the spot, making us look shifty when we struggled to explain!
We felt like telling them to stick it.

Quite likely, I know it's not as low a % as some others, but Dh and I are happy with it.

@3bears88 I appreciate you say there is £500 left over each month but a lender will never usr every penny of your disposable income, what if your washer breaks or your car fails the MOT one month, if there's nothing left after your mortgage payments you won't be able to afford to fix it.
That answers one vague query I had when applying to remortgage recently, thanks! Luckily I had enough for the stress test and a broken washing machine pretty much every month, so I count myself very fortunate.

In regards to brokers yes they will find a mortgage for you but they charge you for the privilege or get a procuration fee from the lender which sometimes means u pay a higher rate of interest or a product fee. They wont get you anything you can't get yourself by shopping around.
However I dispute this. I specifically searched for the deal and rate I was recommended by my broker on the lender's website and it was nowhere to be seen. Nothing there came close, in fact (and there were also dozens of mortgage providers who I have never even heard of, so how would I ever have found their products?).

And yes they got paid, but I don't begrudge them their (clearly listed in the mortgage offer doc) £700-odd. They aren't a charity, and they found me a better deal than I could have obtained; and gave me lots of invaluable advice I'd never have known about what banks were faster or slower to process, which ones would be receptive to my particular circs, which ones to avoid like the plague etc. My new lender received the e-application on a Thursday, and by Monday post I had the offer doc.

This was in comparison to my existing lender who refused to speak with me unless I went in and had a formal 3hr Skype-type interview in one of their branches (an in person appt wasn't available for the 3 months we painfully, manually searched dates for).

I'm sure there are good ones out there thought I don't want to tarnish all with the same brush.
Yes that's fair. I later recommended my broker to someone else on a local FB group and was followed by a chorus of other people also giving him the thumbs-up.

Just placemarking to show DH and discuss.

Thank you Shotsfired.. I work for a medium sized broker firm founded over 20 years ago and we aim to deliver exactly the type of service you describe- and we do have access to products not available elsewhere! (We are also whole of market, will see you face to face and don't charge an additional fee.. sadly we don't have a firm that has already been mentioned here a couple of times' advertising budget!)

Ask locally, use a firm that friends or family will recommend and one where you really aren't just a number or a name on a form.