First Direct withdraws mortgages

[ratewhore]

I remember when getting any sort of loan/mortgage was only possible by goveling to a bank manager armed with a suitcase full of payslips and guarantees. And then you had to have a huge deposit and paid an eye watering rate of interest.

Looks like we are heading back to them days.

Which is no bad thing...

[Turion]

Yup.

Had to save for a year or two before they'd even look at you...

Mind you, houses were about £10k then.

Then there was disipline in the market. People had to wait in line and were not allowed to over-extend. Never got many repos in the '81/82 recession despite unemployment reaching 3m.

[DimPrawn]

Then there was disipline in the market. People had to wait in line and were not allowed to over-extend. Never got many repos in the '81/82 recession despite unemployment reaching 3m.

Unemployment now is way higher than 3m. It's they are called something else other than unemployed now.

[Turion]

Unemployment now is way higher than 3m. It's they are called something else other than unemployed now.

Also, you could get the mortgage interest paid through benefits. Now's it only a small amount and that kicks in after 9months. Probably lost the house by then.

[TheFaQQer]

Somewhere from the tulip bucket that I live has made it onto national news. Also where Qdos is based randomly.

Does that mean that some days they are there, and others they move to a different location?

[Bumfluff]

Im currently in the process of remortgaging with First Direct they are calling me today to do the application. I called them this morning to ask about the news and they said the media had got the story wrong, they are still issueing mortgages but new customers have to open a first direct current account first before applying, previously the process for new customers was the current account was opened at the same time as the mortgage.

They do seem really busy though, they are quoting nearly 12 weeks for completion, where as Abbey quotes 6-8 weeks. IMO First Direct just need a bit of breathing space to sort out the current applications and thats all.

[MrRobin]

I was on the phone to First Direct last night about getting a mortgage. They said the wait for applications to go through was quite long, around 10 - 12 weeks but didn't mention anything about closing down deals to new customers... Was told I just need to transfer my bank account to them at the time of approval.

[Cyberman]

No problem, although you will probably find that the actual reason for the withdrawal is not a backlog, but a lack of funds to fund new mortgage aps or fear of increasing their mortgage book and ending up in the same boat as Bear Stearns, Northern Rock or UBS etc.

I agree with you, Diver. There are lots of staff leaving other banks such as Northern Rock that are available so my view also is that they have liquidity problems. Otherwise, this would be a massive opportunity for First Direct to increase their customer base and thus profits!!

[PAH]

So it's just another case of the journalists trying to create the news rather than report it.

[Sockpuppet]

Does that mean that some days they are there, and others they move to a different location?

Actually I take my car to the garage across the road and never knew they were there. Yep...bloody observant me.