Greetings all from Santander!

I hardly place any business with Santander anymore but the main reason is that they have no USP's anymore so if they are not there on rate then why would anyone use them? Most lenders goes to age 75 now and no advantages for the self employed now either and taking pension contributions in to account for affordability when no other lenders do is just crazy so i cant see any USP's. What are your USP's AJS? Why would a broker use Santander? Service is never normally great and we are worried that you will try to steal the PT business in 2 years time....

I used to use Santander a lot but we are talking over 6 years ago now. They were in my top 4

However, after the more than awkward application (were people are penalized heavily if they pay more into a pension) and the fact that the lender tries to ALWAYS take out clients, then I am very wary to use you all at all

Afternoon!

I certainly agree with you that we have lost some of our USPs.. the saddest one for me personally was latest year for self employed.

Some policy changes we implemented last year were to further enhance our IO and part and part policy which is great (appreciate region can have a bearing), 95% New Build houses and flats. I've always been a fan of our personal loan for a deposit too. We have a lot on the notepad all lenders speak of but after a meeting with our Product team last week I expect to have a lot more to tell you in this space by end of Q1.

Our service I accept has at times suffered when we've had a huge spike in business - but I will defend us in that overall we maintained a 6 day average offer time last year. Can that be better - YES!! And we are working really hard to do just that.

I'm sad to hear the perception is we steal your PT business - that is not the plan I assure you, but I know sometimes this hasn't gone to plan so to speak. We do highlight the broker on our letters to customers at PT time and write to them just 3 months before now. Again I think we can go further and this is being worked on too.

Happy to get one of our BDMs to have a chat and go through any policy that would help entice you to give us a try again.

AJ 

Afternoon

I'm really sorry to hear you've lost cases this way. There is a process in place for our direct telephone teams whereby if there is a broker on the case they are directed back to the broker to complete the PT. We absolutely don't want to steal the business and the relationship you've worked so hard for. In cases like these that get flagged to me through my accounts I will always investigate and have calls listen to etc to ensure the right outcome for all. Please do reach out to your BDM or myself in these instances and we will do our best to help.

At present we email updates, use our sales teams in the field and also use LinkedIn - how could we improve our contact for you? 

Again sorry to hear you've had a bad experience with our UW - I would certainly expect understanding of a payslip and I'll feed this back for you.

I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I'd love for us to be able to show the change to you this year!

AJ 

Sorry AJ, Santander are my last option lender youre not broker friendly at all, you wont allow Brokers to handle further advances allowing you to nick our clients, your service levels are rubbish, yout application asks ridiculous questions & above all your proc fees are crap, joint lowest in the industry...youve got a nerve posting on here

Play fair Gazza ! I have no argument with your complaints about Santander and I will go to my grave believing that (at least up until now) their whole system in recent years is set up to compete with us, particularly at point of PT.

However, I don't we should be attacking AJ - he/she has been given a job apparently to help confirm and address these issues and is acting in good faith (good on him/her for having the balls to accept this) and I certainly don't think he/she is doing anything wrong in accepting the task (I wouldn't want it) and giving it a go.

If he/she succeeds,  even if only in part, then good - if they don't we haven't lost anything.

Senior Paper, ive been in this business far too long & im too old in the tooth to mince words. My business has lost customers over the past few years as a result of thier underhanded methods, so please dont go asking me to play fair as if im the bad one, respect to AJS if he/she fixes the issues but he/she wont, its just hot air.

AJS represents Santander & will be fully aware of the issues with the Santander/Broker relationship & will know the many problems have been caused by Santanders greed & disrespect for Brokers, I have no faith or trust in thier business ethics, so come on this forum once they've been fixed AJS & ask Brokers to give your beloved Santander another chance, I would most certainly be much more receptive