Homeloan - interest rate

[spiderz]

Got a 100% loan from Standard Bank at Prime + 1.49%
ABSA (my own bank) only offered 90% and after a big fight, 95%.
FNB outright declined my application due to wording on my payslip.

 

[blunomore]

Got a 100% loan from Standard Bank at Prime + 1.49%
ABSA (my own bank) only offered 90% and after a big fight, 95%.
FNB outright declined my application due to wording on my payslip.

So does it mean they all have different criteria or is it simply the human element in interpreting the criteria?

I am amazed that one can get 4 different responses!

 

[GreyBush]

Accepted a 90% loan from Std at prime.
FNB also declined us...they seem pretty fussy.
ABSA was prime + on 90% bond
Capitec was 100% bond at prime +2

 

[hellfire]

This is probably the best place to raise this:

I am amazed at the difference in the way banks approach home loans. Through a bond originator, we applied to 4 different banks for a home loan and each one had a different answer!!! Shocking!!!

Nedbank said that since we own our own business, they cannot help us with a homeloan UNLESS we have a cheque account with them, which we do not.

ABSA granted our loan at 8.26%, but it took them THREE WEEKS just to get a valuator out to see the property.

FNB turned our application down because according to them our income does not justify a loan of the size that we wanted. How come ABSA thinks otherwise??

Standard Bank has UP TO NOW not had the decency to respond to the application. How very mediocre!!

I applied directly via all but Nedbank to transfer my current bond. The service levels within home loans department at Standard, FNB and ABSA are all abysmal. All had to be escalated for help.
Standard Bank sends instructions to attorneys before their clients actually accept the bond offer.
FNB took from May to August to get back with a QUOTE.
ABSA just lost the application multiple times and I had to fight to get it sorted.

 

[GreyBush]

I applied directly via all but Nedbank to transfer my current bond. The service levels within home loans department at Standard, FNB and ABSA are all abysmal. All had to be escalated for help.
Standard Bank sends instructions to attorneys before their clients actually accept the bond offer.
FNB took from May to August to get back with a QUOTE.
ABSA just lost the application multiple times and I had to fight to get it sorted.

And the banks are only the start of it, municipality, lawyers, estate agents... they all give terrible service. Well at least thats my experience over the past couple months.

 

[blunomore]

I applied directly via all but Nedbank to transfer my current bond. The service levels within home loans department at Standard, FNB and ABSA are all abysmal. All had to be escalated for help.
Standard Bank sends instructions to attorneys before their clients actually accept the bond offer.
FNB took from May to August to get back with a QUOTE.
ABSA just lost the application multiple times and I had to fight to get it sorted.

And I thought my experience was bad .... yours beat me by far !

 

[hellfire]

And the banks are only the start of it, municipality, lawyers, estate agents... they all give terrible service. Well at least thats my experience over the past couple months.

Don't worry - it's not just your experience

 

[ToxicBunny]

Damn straight.. the "lawyers" are actually the worst...

I had to get very direct with mine and tell her that if she didn't do her job to MY satisfaction I would report her to the law society, and attempt to get my money back etc... I was pissed when I'd paid what I considered a vastly inflated sum for someone to forward documents around, and then not have the job done even vaguely efficiently...

 

[Paul_S]

I applied for a 80% bond in 2008.
Sale price of the property was R830K
Cash deposit of 20% (R166K)
This is with dual income and my wife and I both having excellent credit records (700+).

Standard Bank told me to look elsewhere.
ABSA offered prime +0.5%
Nedbank offered prime +3.5%
SA Home Loans offered an equivalent of prime +0.5% (JIBAR +3.5%) which we took due to their excellent service.

I'm still not impressed considering that I put a 20% deposit down.

 

[Sepeng]

Man you guys are making me nervous - I'm supposed to start looking for a place later this year!
Here I was thinking it'll be all fine and dandy, dual income, no real expenses etc etc. Yet quite a few of you guys are in the same boat and still battled.

I'm renting right now, suppposed to be out end of Jan - how long you reckon it will take from having an offer accepted to moving in? I was thinking to start looking soon, find a place by October, have everything sorted (bond approved, paperwork done) and move in End Jan - this realistic (3 months for admin)?

 

[Cicero11]

Bought our first home in December last year, 10 % deposit and got a rate of 8.85%. The whole experience was just plain horrible. Knew not to expect much from the estate agents and lawyers but could not believe that ALL the banks could offer such terrible service,shocking!

 

[Messugga]

Man you guys are making me nervous - I'm supposed to start looking for a place later this year!
Here I was thinking it'll be all fine and dandy, dual income, no real expenses etc etc. Yet quite a few of you guys are in the same boat and still battled.

I'm renting right now, suppposed to be out end of Jan - how long you reckon it will take from having an offer accepted to moving in? I was thinking to start looking soon, find a place by October, have everything sorted (bond approved, paperwork done) and move in End Jan - this realistic (3 months for admin)?

To give you an idea of how long the process can take, we purchased in the middle of November. Our documentation arrived on basically the 1st of February, so it took around 3 months. We did, however, purchase the house cash so there wasn't the issue of banks dragging their feet.

 

[Grimspoon]

Bought a new house last October, we got 8.2 % and we put down a massive deposit.

Much below 8 doesn't seem to common now days.

 

[AniV]

Capitec was 100% bond at prime +2

Capitec does homeloans now? Oooer.
Been waiting for them to!
Coming soonl: Credit Cards!
Capitec rocks.

 

[noxibox]

So does it mean they all have different criteria or is it simply the human element in interpreting the criteria?

I am amazed that one can get 4 different responses!

They each have their own criteria. Not really surprising as every other service they offer differs.

I'm renting right now, suppposed to be out end of Jan - how long you reckon it will take from having an offer accepted to moving in? I was thinking to start looking soon, find a place by October, have everything sorted (bond approved, paperwork done) and move in End Jan - this realistic (3 months for admin)?

In Cape Town usually allow 3 months. Four should be more than enough.

This is probably the best place to raise this:

I am amazed at the difference in the way banks approach home loans. Through a bond originator, we applied to 4 different banks for a home loan and each one had a different answer!!! Shocking!!!

Nedbank said that since we own our own business, they cannot help us with a homeloan UNLESS we have a cheque account with them, which we do not.

ABSA granted our loan at 8.26%, but it took them THREE WEEKS just to get a valuator out to see the property.

FNB turned our application down because according to them our income does not justify a loan of the size that we wanted. How come ABSA thinks otherwise??

Standard Bank has UP TO NOW not had the decency to respond to the application. How very mediocre!!

Last time I took out a home loan ABSA was the worst, with the branch manager doing everything except saying that he couldn't care less about getting my business, Standard Bank's home loan department kept requesting the same documents over and over until I eventually told them to just **ck off, Nedbank initially came bank with an outrageous interest rate which I literally laughed at, and FNB offered the best rate. I received very good service from the Standard Bank branch, but their home loan department are complete muppets. Nedbank I think were chancing because after laughed in their face they came back with a much more reasonable offer. But in my case FNB had the best deal. Both Nedbank and FNB wouldn't budge on the rate regardless of whether the loan was 90 or 100%.

 

[czc]

Hmmm, seems the banks give everyone different service.

 

[reactor_sa]

Hmmm, seems the banks give everyone different service.

It's not just about the bank, it's often more about the sales people at the bank - sometimes you get lucky and get one that knows what the f they're doing

 

[Carol35]

We have also just been through this and it was actually an awful experience. I did my homework before hand and our credit rating was impeccable, house way below market value in a very good area. We wanted a 100% bond.
Absa lololed at us
SA homeloans offered 90%
Fnb, who is our bank and we have financed everything under the sun through them offered 85% at +1.4
Std was the best, got our answer within 2 days at 90% also +1.4.

We went with std and will renegotiate interest rate within 2 years hopefully.

I really was shocked that we didn't get good rates nor 100% due to our affordability , good credit score and also the house being under market value. Guess I was expecting too much.

Anyhow, least we got the house I suppose.
Btw, we went through 2 bond originators, the first was a total wash out and wasted loads of time, blady useless a@$)hole, almost cost us our house....our second was awesome and really got the ball rolling and as helpful as anything...he really did try his best to motivate the banks for us.

 

[hellfire]

Man you guys are making me nervous - I'm supposed to start looking for a place later this year!
Here I was thinking it'll be all fine and dandy, dual income, no real expenses etc etc. Yet quite a few of you guys are in the same boat and still battled.

I'm renting right now, suppposed to be out end of Jan - how long you reckon it will take from having an offer accepted to moving in? I was thinking to start looking soon, find a place by October, have everything sorted (bond approved, paperwork done) and move in End Jan - this realistic (3 months for admin)?

See Carol35's experience below... if you accept a rate of prime+, then your process expectation of Oct-Jan is realistic.
There may still be delays in areas other than the bank though, for example:
The owners can't leave by transfer time and want to pay you occupational rent
Deeds office dallies and actual transfer is delayed

We have also just been through this and it was actually an awful experience. I did my homework before hand and our credit rating was impeccable, house way below market value in a very good area. We wanted a 100% bond.
Absa lololed at us
SA homeloans offered 90%
Fnb, who is our bank and we have financed everything under the sun through them offered 85% at +1.4
Std was the best, got our answer within 2 days at 90% also +1.4.

We went with std and will renegotiate interest rate within 2 years hopefully.

I really was shocked that we didn't get good rates nor 100% due to our affordability , good credit score and also the house being under market value. Guess I was expecting too much.

Anyhow, least we got the house I suppose.
Btw, we went through 2 bond originators, the first was a total wash out and wasted loads of time, blady useless a@$)hole, almost cost us our house....our second was awesome and really got the ball rolling and as helpful as anything...he really did try his best to motivate the banks for us.

 

[UnUnOctium]

Protip on the expected delay: Rather make it 3.5-4 months as the banks themselves take forever to process the bond. This is especially true if your 'home branch' is in a different province. True story.