The broker, who wished to remain anonymous, posted his freepost application for the fixed-rate remortgage on Tuesday, received the alert telling him the product would be pulled on Wednesday and had lost the deal by 5 pm on Thursday when the Nationwide introduced its new higher rate.
Joe Wiggins, spokesman for the Nationwide, said: “This should give them [brokers] more than enough time to advise any clients of the rate change and ensure any pending applications are sent to the Society.”
Wiggins, added: “I would just point out that intermediaries can deal with Nationwide through our network of over 700 branches throughout the UK, so this person could have simply returned the application to a branch and paid the £249 reservation fee to secure the lower rate for his or her client.”
But Anne Hales, mortgage consultant with St. James Place subsidiary, Winchester Associates, said: “Nationwide are notorious for leaving product alerts to the last minute.”
She added: “The Nationwide don’t advertise their reservation fee, or if they do I’m not aware of it. To submit cases through Nationwide’s branch network would only really be possible for brokers who already have a strong relationship with a local branch. Often, branches have few staff and broker submissions will simply be seen as extra work.”
Tim Sturley, head of business development at Mortgage Express, said: “Lenders should be keeping an eye on business volumes and the money markets if they’re taking the intermediary market seriously at all. It’s very hard for mortgage brokers to operate successfully and it makes them look more than silly when the client thinks the broker just lost the rate by sitting on the deal.”
