Abbey National - No problems (Abbey National in general)

Member Name: maggiemay

Product:	Abbey National in general
Date:	07/08/00 (487 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, Efficient, CashBack, and Refund of Survey fees for existing customers

Disadvantages: Not the cheapest

We have been with the Abbey National for 10 years now, and have had 3 mortgages with them over this period. 10 years ago I was not very keen when the mortgage advisor suggested
having them, we were with the Leeds at the time, and I had previously had experience of a remortgage to the Abbey National that had taken absolutely ages to complete. However this time it went through very quickly and smoothly.
When we moved 2 years ago we went back to the Abbey to see
what they could offer us, and got what was then a good fixed rate deal of 5.99, however it did have tie in penalty clauses, so when we moved 2 months ago we had to stick with the Abbey or pay the penaulty clause. We kept the existing fixed rate loan and had a second loan at discounted rate to tie in with the 3 years left on our fixed rate. At the end of this period we can then decide what we want to do. We have a mixture of endowment and repayments on our mortgage,
which the Abbey will let you have. When the situation regarding the underperformance of the endowment policies is clearer, we then have the option of converting a further part of our mortgage to repayment if we want to. Personally if I was taking out a mortgage now as a first time buyer, I would definately steer clear of endowments and go for a straight repayment mortgage, you know where you are with that, and if you can pay off more, the mortgage is repaid sooner. We have had no problems at all with the Abbey National, unlike our last purchaser, who went with the Halifax, and there was nothing but problems with one mistake after the other, which in turn caused us problems
over a mortgage retention for a unadopted yet section 38 agreement on the local authority adopting the roads on the
newly completed estate - despite the Halifax having a signed agreement with the builders not to implement this
(which apparently a lot of their staff were unaware about!!!)
There is also much to be said about changing your buildings a
nd contents insurance from your Building Society, it may save you money in the short term, but if you have to make a claim, as we did on a previous property with a serious water
leak that did quite a few thousand pounds worth of damage, some insurance companies do not handle claims as quickly and efficiently as others, Abbey National were very good, and very quick, which is more than can be said of our contents policy which at that time was with a different insurer, they nit picked, and delayed, and generallly caused us more grief than we needed. Needless to say we now have both Buildings and Contents with Abbey National - you get what you pay for in the long run!!!

Summary: