Mortgage accepted but not applied to account

[WingingIt101]

I'll try and explain myself clearly. But I'm extremely stressed so apologies if I am unclear.

We will obviously be calling the lender as soon as they open tomorrow.

DH and I moved to our home in November 2020. It was a big jump but manageable. 1.89% mortgage. 2 year fix.

Seeing how the rates were rising and being cautious we opted to re fix with current lender (Santander in case it makes a difference) as soon as our account opened up the option to re fix. This was July 2022. Best offer we had was to re fix at 3.55% for 5 years so we took it. DH and I both remember getting the email links to accept the offer and did so. We weren't chuffed as the payments increased by around £300pm but it was better to have the certainty of the cost and now the variable is 5.5% we are glad we did.
We have emails and messages on our account saying the offer has been sent and accepted "thanks for confirming your new mortgage rate" on 6th July 2022.

Today DH receives an email saying your new rate starts tomorrow. Logs in and it shows us on the variable at 5.5% and paying a further £500 over the already additional £300pm!

He read the email ten minutes before the call centre shut and couldn't get through in time. As I say we will call as soon as they open. But I don't know how to sleep. I'm so stressed. We can't afford that new rate - it's why we fixed!

Trouble is none of the confirmation emails say what the deal was we were given.

Has anyone else had similar with Santander? What was the outcome / do you have advice?

Didn't you get a confirmation email with the new rate on?

No just an email that says thank you for accepting your new deal - I can't see within it the rate detailed.

That's literally what the penultimate paragraph says they don't have.

I hope you can get through today and it's an error. I would be concerned too.

Logging in again this morning it has now updated to reflect the fix we had expected.

Goodness only knows why for 24 hours it showed a rate almost double what we were expecting!

That was such a terrible night of worry - but hopefully leaving this thread here will show others that there is some sort of thing on the Santander system that during the change over may show the standard variable.

Glad you got it sorted! What a nightmare, fortunately only one sleepless night.

Ah that's great. Good idea to keep the thread up as it will no doubt happen to others.

I'm expecting mine to do this in January. No idea why but there seems to be 1 day difference between the end of my current deal and the start of the next one on the paperwork (I probably wouldn't have noticed except I had applied for a deal elsewhere and had been really clear with the solicitor on the required completion date, then the Santander deals were better when they released them)

As you were still on the variable rate on that day, it sounds like that increased in line with this week's base rate increase. Just unfortunate timing the day before your new mortgage began, but I'm glad you new rate kicked in.

I had the same issue with Santander. I fixed at 3.49 in July for when existing deal ended in October.

Received no paperwork, email documents etc to confirm. I was bricking it when it got closer to my fix ending and spent some time waiting on the phone to confirm with Santander that all was okay with my remortgage.

I think it's poor practice to not even send anything in writing before the new deal runs out and must have an impact on the number of calls they receive to customer service from those querying it.

I would complain about it. They've caused you a lot of stress with their mistake and will continue doing it to other people. Write them an email.

We had a similar terrible experience with Santander when we tried to move to them last year. Took nearly 6 months for them to try and process - we have three titles for various dull reasons. I have to say Barclays sorted it within a week !

I'm so glad you said this! It really is poor that they don't put the details in writing.

I said to DH that with the additional worries people are facing financially at the moment a vulnerable person could have ended up in a terrible situation.

Alls well that ends well but I'd gladly not experience it again!!

@WingingIt101 I've always been with Santander mortgage wise. And it's never been as poor as this when it comes to remortgage time. I'm sure I've received confirmation documents for the new deal prior to the old one ending previously!

And yes was quite stressful having to wait on the phone for ages just to confirm all was okay.

Funnily enough I've got a complaint submitted about their poor customer service when I was initially querying a new rate with them. I was told "just check on your online mortgage account". But I wasn't registered as their app is so un-user friendly. They were just so unhelpful and the delay in setting up an account cost me extra in my mortgage due to rate increases!

I know this is an old thread…. But has anyone else had this with Santander? Two sleepless nights now at prospect of bring on follow on rate despite locking in a deal in September and would welcome others experiences to calm my panic!