First Direct Mortgages

Knowing F D as a great bank we applied for our mortgage over the phone . FIVE weeks on angry,disgusted,stressed and very disappointed we feel no further forward.There doesn't seem to be a professional mortgage advisor dealing with the application..no communication from them ..having to phone them constantly and seem to be going back over things that were "supposed" to have been confirmed in week one ..incompetent and unprofessional ...just hoping we still get our house :( :(

Spent weeks of time arranging a remortgage.

Uploading documents several phone calls then when we get to the final stage you find out that a question which should have been asked in the initial call didnt get asked.

Thatnks for wasting a week of my time ridiculous unprofessional set up

I'm not a huge leaver of reviews and I have been a customer for 30 (yes thirty) years. In the early days FD was an amazing bank - really personal service as well as great products. Now they have a million plus customers (because of the £100+ bribes on offer) and it’s a whole different ball game. As others have said the mortgage application process is pathetic. You would have thought that the first telephone and one of the first internet banks could offer an internet only execution service bit no. You fill the form in on line and then expected to have these very long phone calls with the operator. It’s just not on. The products are OK but not particularly completive. Id steer clear of the mortgages if I were you.

up until now I've always been an advocate of FD, and have been a loyal customer since the early days despite many tempting offers from the competition. My salary has gradually increased during this time to over 6 figures, no debts, loans and an excellent credit rating, so Im bemused why I got turned down on a 40% ltv mortgage with no explanation at all. I can only say that the mortgage team are hopeless, disjointed and seem to think its acceptable to constantly book 1.5hr telephone calls when all you want is a quick review - you have 21 years of my financial history at your fingertips . To rub salt in the wound, they had pre-approved me which was the basis of finding and buying a house.

First Direct, I know you don't read these reviews which is a shame, you are an absolute shambles, a disgrace to what was a great product. As soon as I have a new mortgage in place I will be taking all my business away from you to someone who has a bit more common sense and hope this serves as a warning to others.

In the beginning they were very friendly, even told us everything looked good.Then after about six weeks of sending everything they asked for, they begin to nit pick.They even wanted copies of divorce decrees from.previous marriage .They sent an appraiser who sent a report asking us to paint different areas of the house which we did in one day.they then sent the same guy back again who proceeded to find other areas to fix. We are finished with them. Buyer Beware! We are moving on to another company

I have banked with first direct since 2005, had several loans all paid off early. Paid a mortgage with a different provider for 3 years and approached first direct because of favourable fixed rates. Procedure appeared ok to begin with and then the intrusive phone messages and the refusal for 180000 remortgage with a £75000 basic salary and £100,000 if you include overtime. I was shocked. Could not believe they had refused it when I have never missed payments, actually paid significant overpayments, no outstanding debts etc etc.

I am angry as no proper explanation given other than the possibility of going through further humiliation with advisors and more imbeciles on the First Direct payroll.

I am now changing my current account. As they pay no interest they rely on the Customer service. When it comes to mortgages, the service is severly lacking and simply comes down to "Computer says no" with no logical explanation. My advice is to not bother trying to use their mortgage services.

I have a current account with FD & I have my shares with FD I used to have an off set mortgage but due to a divorce where I ended up I buying the family home from my Ex. LTV only 37% loan required £137,000 over 15 years yet I was declined! !!

I have 100% credit rating I have been employed by a FTSE 100 company for 25 years I have a pension which can be payed at 60 years old but still not good enough for this company so I am extremely upset

I have all my finances with this company and they won;t lend me the same loan that I have been paying without fault for years.

What ever you do don't have a problem in life like a divorce as this company won't be there to assist you.

I've banked with First Direct since graduating in 1994 and have always been impressed with their service. I have a good, secure, well paid job. I have nor mortgages, loand, or any other debt and have approximately £1100 surplus cash each month. Using the various mortgage repayment calculators apparently i could borrow up to £200k. According to First Direct they could only lend me £10,000 - wtf???

They couldn't explain why but it seems that having 4 Buy to let properties meant that they had to take into account ALL the costs (council tax, insurance mortgage etc but NONE of the income. Only one of the properties had an outstanding mortgage and total rental income was 3x the mortgage. However First Direct exclude the rental income and INCLUDE all the costs. So the more properties you have, the LESS you can borrow.

One of the absolute worst examples of "Computer Says No" that I've ever seen.

I've banked with First direct for years, I then took a £200k (under 50% LTV) offset mortgage in early 2009. At that time I also had around £15,000 in savings.

Since that time my salary has more than doubled to £120,000+, i'd been sensible and paid down my mortgage by £80,000 and also had a further £110,000 saved with first direct (offsetting) meaning I technically owed £10,000. all done within 6 years. In addition to the above I also have cash and shares elsewhere worth over 50,000 and have no other debts (no loans, HP agreements, nothing).

So here we are today (well late March 2015 to be precise), we decide to move home and want to borrow £400,000 on a house worth £1m (40% LTV), to my shock we have been declined for an Offset mortgage at that level (would only lend £335,000) however will lend me up to £450,000 on a Repayment mortgage.......... go figure.

Total madness that no one at FD can explain how one product can be affordable and not the other. I even offered to agree (build into the agreement if necessary) to as well as pay the interest pay into either a savings account with them or even the mortgage the equivalent Repayment amount, yet that wasn't possible.

So FD, I can afford a repayment mortgage of £1800 a month (I clear over £7k) but not an offset mortgage of £430 and an additional payment of £1400. To rub salt into the wounds the advisors final comments were they can see i'll have surplus every month so do I want to reduce the term!

Clearly as was lightly indicated to me, those with offsets who use them properly don't make FD much money, whereas someone on a repayment mortgage that goes to full or near full term they make plenty.

Unsurprisingly I have gone elsewhere for my mortgage and also closed my current and other accounts with FD so overall they've lost a customer.

The FD mortgage service is beyond a joke. If you want any sort of advice you need to book a call back appointment with them and it's often weeks if not months in the future!!! If you need to change anything, there is no flexibility and being an online bank, there is little to no online mortgage editing ability. I have since closed all my accounts with them.