35 year old wife and mother. Part time programmer analyst. Christian
35 year old wife and mother. Part time programmer analyst. Christian
Member since:17.08.2001
Reviews:46
Members who trust:40
A mortgage is an essential part of life for most of us, unless of course you are lucky enough to be rolling in money. When you take out a mortgage it is likely to be a long term commitment. Consequently the relationship you have with your mortgage lender will be long term too and could last as long as 25 years.
You would not enter into a 25 year relationship with a friend or commit to a 25 year marriage without first knowing the person inside out. You would find out as much as you could about them and as your relationship developed, you would come to trust them. So it should be with your mortgage lender.
The face of many mortgage lenders is their customer service team. They may have a fabulous looking website or nicely decorated offices, or more importantly, offer great products but if their customer service is not up to scratch this all pails into insignificance.
If you have read any of my other mortgage ops, you will know that I have been hunting around for a new mortgage. Having found myself stuck in a high interest fixed rate mortgage, I had decided to buy myself out and get a better deal. After months of hunting around, I eventually came full circle and have ended up with a new mortgage with my existing lender, Nationwide.
I have had accounts with Nationwide for a number of years and up until now, have dealt with my local branch. I have always been pleased with the service provided, that was until I decided to take advantage of their internet/telephone service, Nationwide Direct.
Below is part of a letter of complaint that I recently sent to the Nationwide Direct Customer Service Manager, expressing my discontent with the service I received (I apologise for the length - please feel free to leave now if you are already bored!):
Dear Sir or Madam
I am writing to express my disappointment at my recent dealings with the Nationwide Building Society and in particular Nationwide Direct.
Having decided to redeem my existing fixed rate mortgage in favour of a base rate tracker and pay a hefty redemption penalty, I contacted Nationwide by telephone to make the appropriate arrangements. I choose to arrange this by telephone, rather than in the branch due to the fact that I have a small daughter and find it difficult to attend appointments.
The first
gentleman I spoke to on 19th January was extremely helpful, giving me quotes for both the new mortgage (a base rate tracker for 2 years with a 6.49% cap) and the flexible advance I would need to arrange to pay the penalty. As it was a Saturday, he informed me that he had completed a 'conversion template' and that somebody would be in touch with me on Monday 21st to finalize the process. As I was due to be at work that morning, we arranged that somebody would ring me in the afternoon.
The afternoon came and went and nobody called, so in the early evening, I called the Nationwide Direct Sales line again. I was told that all advisors were extremely busy and somebody would ring me back the following day. Somebody did indeed ring me at work the following day. The lady in question was not at all helpful and in fact gave me some extremely misleading information. She informed me that the cap was 5.99% and not 6.49% as I had been led to believe by the previous gentleman and the Nationwide website. I questioned this on a couple of occasions during the telephone conversation, but she was adamant that this was the case. She also informed me that the minimum amount I could borrow on a flexible advance was £3000 and not the £2100 I required. When I asked her how I could go about paying back the extra £900 I did not require she suggested I contact customer service as 'payments were not her area'. She asked me for all the same information that I had already given to the first advisor I had spoken to, which I felt was unnecessary as the information should have been already on your computer system. We left it that somebody would contact me about the flexible advance and somebody else about the tracker mortgage.
Having been thoroughly confused by the whole process and slightly concerned that things were not in order, I decided to ring back to speak to another advisor to clarify things. This time, there were no advisors available to speak to, so I waited until later that evening and rang again. I spoke to another advisor who agreed apologetically that the capped rate was indeed 6.49% and not 5.99%. He checked the details on screen and confirmed that everything was in order.
During the following two weeks I received a few phone calls and two sets of documentation concerning the flexible advance but nothing about the tracker mortgage. I just assumed that the tracker mortgage was being processed and I would soon hear about it. Having also been told that this interest rate would be backdated to the day I made my first request, I was not unduly concerned about this process taking some time.
Having not heard anything still about the tracker mortgage after 14 days, I decided to ring again. The lady I spoke to this time was helpful and said that there was nothing on record to say that a declaration form had been sent out but I should leave it with her and she would arrange for one to be sent out. She said that the rate would be backdated to 1st February (it was by now 31st January) and although this was not exactly what I had been originally told (thinking it was being backdated to 19th January), I did not see the point in quibbling over a few days. She said she would arrange a call back the following day to confirm that things were finally in order.
The following day I heard nothing, so on Saturday (now 2nd Feb) I rang the helpline again. The lady I spoke to this time said that there was nothing on screen to say that a declaration had been sent out and that if it had, it would take 7 days to reach me. I asked about the interest rate being backdated to the day I made the initial request and she told me (again something different) that the rate would apply from the day they received my signed declaration form. She recommended that I went to the branch to sign this form and said that I should have been recommended this course of action in the first place. She said I ought to do this as quickly as possible because this rate could be withdrawn at any time and Nationwide would be under no obligation to honour the agreement I had made with them over the phone. Again this was contrary to what I had been led to believe before, having previously been told that the rate had been reserved for me.
In spite of the inconvenience, I decided to arrange to have my daughter looked after by a friend so that I could indeed go to the branch and sign the form. By now, I was well and truly fed up and just wanted the process to be completed. I rang the branch just to check that this was possible. After speaking to the mortgage advisor, the lady on reception rang me back to tell me that if I wanted to sign the form in the branch, I would have to start the whole process again. In order to do this, I would need an appointment with a mortgage advisor which could not be arranged until the following week as they were very busy. This really was the final straw. As I work the first part of the week, it would be another 5 days minimum before I could make these arrangements. In spite of this, I made an appointment for Monday (today - 4th Feb) and rearranged my work commitments to attend. My husband also arranged some time off to accompany me.
So, today I went into my local Nationwide Branch (Bognor Regis) and had an appointment with the branch manager. She went through different products available to us and said that a switch would be straightforward. I then pointed out the fact that there were redemption penalties to pay and that we were in the process of arranging a flexible advance to cover these penalties. She told us that the normal process was to add the redemption penalty to the outstanding mortgage balance and then switch to a new product. This came as a major shock to me, as this is what I had wanted to do in the first place and had been told on numerous occasions that this was not possible. So, why did I have to go through the whole process of arranging a flexible advance, waiting in for phone calls that never materialised, chasing mortgage advisors, giving comprehensive personal details to two different advisors on two occasions, when I did not even need a flexible advance?!
And to make matters worse. On the top of the declaration form, the branch manager wrote that the new mortgage would take affect from 1st March. I questioned this and informed her that I had been attempting to get the mortgage switched over since 19th January, but she just repeated "sorry, there is nothing I can do about it". So, as well as having to go through all of the unnecessary flexible advance process, I now find that I have lost out on 6 weeks at the lower interest rate. This 6 weeks could be very costly for me, as having to pay £2100 to redeem my existing mortgage (which I am not at all happy about but feel it is the best way forward), every day at the lower rate will be a step forward in recouping this loss.
I have previously had occasion to write and complain about your service. When I applied for my mortgage in June 2000, I specifically stated that I required a mortgage with daily interest calculations and I was told by two different people at the branch that your interest was calculated in this way. A year later I received a letter stating that the society would now be calculating their interest daily. Had I been aware of this at the time, I would not have arranged a mortgage with Nationwide, but would have chosen a society that calculated interest daily at that time, not a year later. The reply I received from yourselves did not apologise for misinforming me, but instead stated that I should have checked the small print of my mortgage offer. Having checked the small print, I cannot find anywhere where it states how the interest is calculated (perhaps you could tell me where I could find this information). I decided to let this one go at the time, but this latest experience has only fuelled my discontent with the society.
I trust that somebody will take the time to investigate my complaint and that action will be taken to improve the level of customer service on your sales telephone line. In particular, I feel staff should know the products and their associated terms and conditions inside out. It should not be up to the customer to have to clarify the terms and conditions of a mortgage and your customers should certainly be given consistent advice from different telephone and branch mortgage advisors.
I now have to wait a month for my new my new mortgage product to take affect. In the meantime, I will be looking around for a better deal with other mortgage lenders and may well decide, after this experience, to move my mortgage elsewhere. If I do decide to keep my mortgage with the Nationwide Building Society, I would ask that the tracker interest rate is indeed backdated to the date of my first request. I think this is only fair as it has been your error which has prolonged this process, not mine.
Yours sincerely
Jo Passmore
To be fair to them, I did receive a letter of apology, stating that the service I had received was "unacceptable". They have agreed to backdate the new interest rate to 1st February. So, I have decided to stay with them for the time being. Having said that I have since had a letter stating that my mortgage will be capped at 0.29% - if only!
The moral of the story is this: When taking out a mortgage, or entering into any kind of financial agreement,
- make sure you are certain of the facts - read the small print carefully. - never rely on the word of one member of staff - if in doubt ask to speak to a manager - ask the name of the person you are speaking to (useful if you complain) - if at all possible, make your arrangements face to face rather than on the phone - write to complain if you are not happy
Hopefully Nationwide Direct customer service will improve. In the meantime, I will be taking my own advice.
Last mortgage op (for now anyway) I promise!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I just had a similar experience this afternoon: I went to the local Nationwide branch for remortgage. I had done my homework very thouroughly and was expecting that the new product would have a £95 fee if I want to remortgage again with them in 2 years time. The person I talked to assured me that no, there is no remortaging fee if I stay with Nationwide. But now, back home, I read again their website and it's quite clear that I would have to pay this and she was wrong. To be fair, my present mortgage supplier (IF) did also a similar blunder, in writing this time and only corrected it beacause I complained on the phone.
spiceyspice 04.04.2002 21:18
one to avoid di
TallTone 03.04.2002 09:41
Just about a VH there Jo. Perhaps your letter would have been better under "Buyer Beware"! Regards, TT.
Mar 21st, 2002
very helpful by (91%):
helpful by (9%):
