A number of brokers have contacted Mortgage Introducer saying clients have been refused a loan by Nationwide as a result of its credit scoring but have been able to obtain a mortgage with other lenders on a similar offer.
Peter O’Donovan, mortgage manager at Bestinvest, couldn’t understand why some of his clients were being declined mortgages with the lender. He said: “Over the past couple of weeks Nationwide seems to have changed its credit scoring. I have had a couple of applications where the lender has credit scored, and then declined my client. Nationwide has not been able to give any reason for the cases being declined either, which I think is unacceptable, especially as the client can easily pass through to offer with other lenders.”
“One of my clients wanted to get a mortgage at about 40 to 50 per cent LTV and failed the credit check which I didn’t understand as he didn’t have a poor credit history, and was well within the normal salary guidelines.” he added.
But Charlotte Sjoberg, press officer at Nationwide, denied the lender had changed its policy regarding its credit scoring. She said: “Nationwide has a duty to lend responsibly and as such we are very careful about what we lend and who we lend to. However, this is not to the detriment that we would turn away good clients. As long as all the information received about the client seems to suggest they are good people, and not a risk, then there should not be a problem with their application.”
