mortgage application advice - taking FOREVER!

[NoWayPedros]

My mortgage application has been going on since the end of June and still no decision. To be fair there was a small discrepancy on my credit report I had to provide details for but still no decision so its just stuck.

I've been phoning every day for the last 3 days and basically got let on yesterday they've not done anything/are missing some internal paperwork. Every time I'm asked for something it takes a week for someone to contact me.

It's all done over the phone, no meetings in the branch. Feel really helpless and that its taking too long and starting to panic about timelines.

No idea if I should just start with another provider as it would likely go through now I've sorted the anomaly out.

Help!!!! Anyone else had this?

Did you go direct to a bank?

Yes, direct and we have ALL our accounts with them plus existing mortgage!

Our mortgage application took a long time too, although we had unusually tricky circumstances (me on mat leave, dh just changed jobs and already having a mortgage on another property). Because of this we used a whole of market broker to find us the best deal - they knew which lenders would consider my full salary rather than mat pay etc.

If you have all your paperwork in order might be worth contacting a broker as you could maybe get a decision pretty quickly? If nothing else it would benchmark the offer from your bank. We used London and country who come recommended by Martin lewis.

Ours took 7wks from start to finish, it appears to be standard now, from talking to different people its more rare for it to be quick than take a while now

We went with Nationwide

Most lenders are now underwriting the people before they request a valuation. In my experience (have about 20 lenders on panel) it is taking about 6 weeks to underwrite at the moment with most of our lenders. However, some lenders are much quicker than this.

I have a couple of lenders who have just announced some great rates and they are being inundated with applications from brokers, so maybe that is why.

prettypleasewithsugarontop Nationwide have a great 4 year fixed with help towards legal fees at the moment, maybe that is why they have taken so long, but normally they are extremely quick.

Thanks for the replies, makes me feel a little better. I'm just back from mat leave too so that probably complicated things even more. Sigh, hopefully hear this week :)

We didn't get that deal, but that could explain it, thanks financialwizard

I had approval in principle in about 30mins, when offer accepted I went back for full application...again it was done and signed in less than an hour. Did go through local Branch though...I never do anything financial over phone/Internet.

You could try another bank, maybe a sign of how long they'll take when you'd ready to complete?
We went to a local branch which is better as they are alot more personal. He did say applying to your existing bank is a longer process as they know more about you so things take longer to check!