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I can honestly say that it has been the worst experience of my life made much worse by the Woolwich.
I visited numerous banks & building societies getting quotes for mortgages. We really wanted an offset mortgage, so the Woolwich Openplan was the obvious choice. I went in one morning ... Read review
Advantages: ZERO Disadvantages: No-one knows what's going on!
...an offset mortgage, so the Woolwich Openplan was the obvious choice. I went in one morning and was quite surprised to be able to see the Mortgage advisor straight away. Anyway, she was really friendly and we talked for a while about our current situation, the house we had put an offer on and all the usual questions.
The outcome of the meeting was that she said that we were ideal candidates for the Open Plan as we could put down a 10% ... ...received a letter from the Woolwich saying "thanks, but no thanks". I could not believe what I was reading and the more I read it the more I panicked. It was very vague and just said "you are not suitable for our product" - completely the opposite to what the actual advisor had advised me. It then went on to say that it may be something to do with our credit scores from Experian.
I have recently purchased my first house with my boyfriend.
I can honestly say that it has been the worst experience of my life made much worse by the Woolwich.
I visited numerous banks & building societies getting quotes for mortgages. We really wanted an offset mortgage, so the Woolwich Openplan was the obvious choice. I went in one morning and was quite surprised to be able to see the Mortgage advisor straight away. Anyway, she was really friendly and we talked for a while about our current situation, the house we had put an offer on and all the usual questions.
The outcome of the meeting was that she said that we were ideal candidates for the Open Plan as we could put down a 10% deposit and that as I had just qualified as an accountant, my salary was guaranteed to go up rapidly - hence the offset mortgage.
Anyway, as we had put an offer in on the house, the Mortgage Advisor - Marie, said that there would be no problem whatsoever with giving me an agreement in principle to give to the seller's agent.
I was so relieved to have it all sorted and delighted that we had the mortgage product we wanted.
ONE WEEK LATER
I received a letter from the Woolwich saying "thanks, but no thanks". I could not believe what I was reading and the more I read it the more I panicked. It was very vague and just said "you are not suitable for our product" - completely the opposite to what the actual advisor had advised me. It then went on to say that it may be something to do with our credit scores from Experian.
I got so wound up that I went to see Marie, our friendly mortgage advisor and she explained that it must have been a mistake as she knew we were perfect. She told me not to worry, she'd out it through again and there would be no problems.
In the meantime, me and my boyfriend contacted Experian and sent our £2 cheque off each to receive a copy of our credit scores.
ANOTHER WEEK LATER
The credit scores arrived back, we both looked through them and to us they seemed ok. They listed everyone that lived at our individual addresses and all the credit that they had applied for.
At about the same time our mortgage was refused again from the Woolwich. Marie said that it must be down to our credit scores, so we sent them in - she said that they were fine and that she would in fact refer us to their risk assessment section.
ANOTHER WEEK LATER.
I am not the sort of person to nag and constantly harrass people, however, I did try to contact Marie every other day about our application. She assured me that she was doing the same at her end and that by the Wednesday she would have a definate answer.
WEDNESDAY
I rang the Woolwich that morning only to be told that Marie, our friendly mortgage advisor no longer worked there.
By this point I was hysterical. Apparently no-one else could help me. By the afternoon, we had deduced that she still worked for Woolwich, but not in mortgages or at our branch as she had been promoted.
THE CONCLUSION
Risk assessment still rejected us. We were given no reason why and their advise was, "ry somewhere else!".
The real nightmare was that the people selling their house were wondering what on earth was going on and we were behind schedule by more than two weeks.
Anyway, we have now got a mortgage and the problem was in my boyfriends creit score - it was treating his much in debt brother as him. You would have thought that any mortgage advisor worth their title would have known this or at least the Wollwich could have told us where the problem was.
The whole experience was awful, it was the most stressful time of my life and the Woolwich didn't seem to appreciate that getting a mortgage - especially your first one - is a scary and difficult time.
My advice is don't trust what you are told and if the original outcome is "no", go somewhere else straight away, don't listen to them when they say they can try again.
Advantages: Payoff chunks of mortgage whenever you want. Offsetting saving accounts, interest calaculated daily Disadvantages: Can be tempted to borrow to the max
We've had a Woolwich Open Plan mortgage for just over seven years. On the whole we have been very satisfied. The mortgage work by allowing you to set up a number of accounts and under Woolwich a number of saving pots, ie mini accounts that cannot be overdrawn, which can be offset agai9nst the mortgage. In simple terms this means all of these funds are taken off the mortgage total and interest is then calculated on the result. We set up pots for a ... ...being run by our local Woolwich branch we had only one problem. Initially our mortgage was mostly interest only, with an element of repayment. When we paid off a chunk of our mortgage the repayment element was taken off, without any notification to us. However, as the account is online, and it is possible to transfer very easily I just do a weekly transfer to reduce the outstanding amount. This is useful as some months we are to pay off more than ...
odtaa 07.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolwich Mortgages
Advantages: Portable mortgage with excellent customer service Disadvantages: APR not the most competitive
...all with regards to the Woolwich Buy to Let mortgage scheme.
Whilst most buy to let lenders just want to look at multiples of income:expenditure ratios and base the lending decision simply on maths, the Woolwich will actually work with you to safeguard your interests (and ultimately theirs!) in a logical step by step approach. I have found that they also provide the best customer service and their staff are very knowledgable about the product range.
... ...the APR is not the most competitive but the Woolwich approach and felxibility more than compensate for the rate.
For any would be buy to let landlords - prior to making any commitment with a nother lender - give the Woolwich a call - you may be pleasently surprised. ...
bounty 27.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolwich Mortgages
Advantages: No initial fees and no ties after 2 years Disadvantages: You pay heavily if you quit prior to the end of the capped rate
...open plan mortgage with the Woolwich then you will not have to pay any fees, this could save you up to about £600, not a small sum by any means. They are currently offering a rate capped for two years which offers 5.45% (7.1% APR) this is also available to you without any arrangement fee. After the two years you can ditch the Woolwich if you find a better option and it will only cost you £95.
There are no penalties if you wish to repay your Mortgage ... ...has better rates.
The Woolwich insist that you pay your mortgage from one of their accounts, so if you do not have an account with them then they will open one for you and give you a debit card and a cheque book etc. This Op is starting to sound like an advert but I really believe that this is the future for mortgages, if you are a first time buyer then this has to be the mortgage for you. ...
elmhurstgb 28.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolwich Mortgages
Advantages: High lending amount without extorsionate interest rates, Were allocated a personal morgage advisor. Disadvantages: High charges for returned payments (on top of the charges your bank will charge)
...mortgage payment was returned The Woolwich charged me £27.50 even though this wasn't my fault and refused to refund it. Saying that if we know there will be a problem they have no problems delaying direct debits ( which is good to know just in case) however the notice period is about 10 days before due date. which in most cases if you're going to have a problem paying you may not know that early. My bank charged me £35 but agreed fault and did refund ... ...on time does go smoothly.
Our interest was by all means not the lowest there is but certainly the lowest we found who also lend higher amounts I think at the time we were searching Halifax had the lowest interest rate but only lend 3x annual income. Good luck in your house hunting and mortgage searching. I hope this helps although you cannot accept anyones opinions to mean this will be right for you as everyones situation is different therefore ...
Ortu 05.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolwich Mortgages
Advantages: None Disadvantages: Takes hours to get through to a real person
...for it, so I telephoned Woolwich insurance line who informed me they would deal with it, as they do not even have me on the screen for insurance so I should not be charged. They said they would get back to me, at 6pm nobody called me so I called them back, guess what, they have no record of my conversation earlier so I had to explain it all over again. I decided to call the mortgage centre again, and they told me that Woolwich insurance has to inform ... ...as I do not even have a policy, they now tell me to fax my new insurance details to them and they should be able to sort this out. The customer care is appauling and if you want to spend over £10 in calls and spend at least 4 hours on hold go ahead and have a mortgage with them, I have heard worst things, a friend of mine they got her name wrong on the policy and they were going on about miras which were abolished years ago The mortgage itself is ...
draper 08.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Woolwich Mortgages
Promptness of service
Efficiency of service
Competitiveness of char...
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This Was only the Second Opinion
I wrote for Ciao. I took a look
and decided it was BAD. No Paragraphs,
just one long blur of words. I didn't
even use a capital'I'. No Telephone Nos
and worst of all no Web Address.
So here is what I hope is a better written Opinion
Having tried endowment and repayment mortgages and receiving annual
statements that seem to suggest you owe more than when you started even after paying thousands of pounds, we decided to try the so called Australian mortgage.
We were at the time with the Woolwich in our second year of a capped rate offer. Despite wishing to transfer ...
Fairy_Kisses 24.08.2001 (31.10.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Flexible Mortgage
Advantages: Flexibility given by telephone and internet banking. Disadvantages: Cannot change given password. Can't link with allmortgages
Having had a normal current account with the Woolwich for a few years I found myself in the position to upgrade to their new Open Plan Account. I thought originally that I could tie it in with my Woolwichmortgage, but that was not possible at the time.
The upgrade itself is free from an existing current account. I chose to open a completely new one for personal reasons, and found the application form relatively simple to complete.
They did take quite a while to send the information through when the account was opened, but that was only to be expected with the high levels of demand from their advertising.
I find it has some very useful features. I personally love the internet and telephone banking elements, where I can pay bills without even leaving the office! It's really easy to manage, if you can remember the password they ...
