St George Unconditional Approval so slow?

Hi everyone,

NSW/Sydney.
-Received a Pre-Approval (took 42 days)
-Signed a contract with a 66w (due to circumstances of the market)
-42 days settlement

-7 days after after the contract was signed and lodging a formal approval: STG asked for other documents, then valuated the house.
-Its 11 days now, with no further updates
-Our broker has escalated twice already the pass few days.

Settlement date: 14th October.

Has anyone experienced a super slow Unconditional/Formal Approval with STG?? I know NAB is much quicker, so are other smaller banks.

Asking for some advice/experiences that others may have faced.

 

St G are a nightmare - we refuse to use them these days.

 

Definitely, its me being loyal after all these years with them. They initially stuffed up my pre-approval as well and called our broker back to give us a new one ...
Should of just commited with NAB.

It was just easier to deal with STG in terms of i have everything in one place. silly silly.

 

ST G speed will depend on the broker and their experience with them - they are slow for most that don't use them.
Lender turnaround times have improved a lot of late compared to prior months in general. NAB, CBA, WPC, etc have gone from weeks to days again.

 

thanks for the reply, we actually have two pre-approvals, one with STG and NAB, we continued with STG because it was easier to have everything in one bank.

Do you recommend just to wait it out a bit longer?
30 days left till settlement.

 

They can be tricky at times - we find it depends on the assessor you get an their level of experience. With 30 days to go you should be fine. Just make sure your broker has the docs being issued via e-sign (DocuSign) and that they're prepared to escalate with FMS for verification after they're signed.

 

I'm also not doing any business with the St George group, their service levels are simply unworkable. Haven't done much with NAB of late either.

Consider looking at the second tier lenders. They've got much better service and their rates are often better. Product & policy flexibility may not be as good in some cases, it depends what you actually need.

 

Are you referring to the COS?
Its already signed and sent to STG already. Im assuming that part was fine, since they requested other tax documents + valuated the house of purchase already.

sorry for ignorance, whats FMS

 

Definitely, saw the reviews as well, just at this stage, we are in a bit too deep. I've had so many loans done already, this has to be the worse experience ever!

 

If they've ordered the val, you'll be fine

 

There was a stage where St g like all the other banks were like snails.

However they currently have a 2 day turnaround time and another 3 days if it needs to be send to a more senior person for review.

Like any bank, they are allowed to ask for more info whenever they want.

 

Yeah, they called the agency and valuated the house already. We have the valuation number, its just been a 3 work days already, just getting anxious.

 

Thanks Tony for the info. Definitely not a 2 day turnaround or 3 like i've seen with other banks. Im just shocked how slow things are even after the valuation of the property was done.

 

Im sure your file was picked up in 2 - 3 business dats, but most likely it was sent to a senior person for approval and going back and forth which delayed the process.

Normal process with the westpac group.

 

You have to know all the quirks and there are plenty in getting an application over the line.

I used to be a flame broker (top tier level) and was a different experience than a normal broker.

Had all the assessor's direct contact details and all were experienced, I'm back to pleb status now and haven't used them in a while, not planning to unless no other options are available.

 

thanks for the reply, spot on it went to a senior accreditor as i have a few loans active. it was approved by the processor and credit team (whatever that means) - supposedly only needs to be 'signed off'

Fingers cross.

 

Any updates OP?

 

To be fair they represent themselves as the dragon, not the knight

 

Their turnaround time has gotten better. 1 day pick up from submission. If it needs to go toa senior for approval then that's another day.

 

I just completed a refinance to Bank of Melbourne (a brand of St George). The application was launched near the end of June 2021 to get the $4000 cash back. They took 1 month to for accessor to open my file and they asked for many for documents and explanations. Mid August I got unconditional approval. Had to fight as they use very conservative DTI ratio. Eventually I couldn't get a 80% LVR loan. Then they had delays posting me the loan contract document to sign. After a week I asked for e-Signing through broker. This took another week. Then I got e-Signing email and the link didn't work. I had t o call them to reissue a new email, wasted 4 days there. They are super slow and frustrating.

Settled this week finally.