At first everything was fine until the credit crunch. I'm finding it difficult to meet the repayments at the moment. I have put my house on the market to sell as i cant see an end to it. I called them to tell them this and ask if i could change to interest only until my house has sold. They said NO. Im not looking at just handing the house back with all that entails (bad credit forever). At least me and my family will be able to eat.

Rates, hassle free transfer of funds, quick mortgage decision, correspondence.
Mortgage holders since 2005. Have so far passed on in full the BAE rate cuts to SVR customers.

I have been with FA for 6 Years now, they generally are a good mortgage lender and offer competitive rates, they also support there customers circumstances well.
There biggest problem is only there sales and service team, it really lets down what is a good company. Half of there sales team should be sacked for shear ignorance to there company setup.

Rate was good but their inability to do a draw down of equity without a complete re-mortgage is a joke. You cannot draw down money with the crowd, you have to do a complete re-mortgage if you want to borrow more.

We have applied a loan with First Active last Oct, and within a month the loan was approved, but we then there was near-endless waiting. Two weeks ago they told us that our signatures were different in different documents, but these are the docs that we signed at our solicitor! Ok, we signed them again with at our solicitor, now they told me the application is in the validation queue, and goodness knows how long it would take! Yeah they told me 3-5 working days. It's a complete joke, I don't reccommend people apply with them.

I re-mortgaged with First Active 3 years ago and the switch over process was a complete mess - I spent lots of time calling them to find out how things were progressing, "associates" of First Active were telling me that things had been done that later transpired they hadn't - documents were sent to the wrong departments, etc etc. I complained about this when things were finally completed and to their credit they did follow up my complaint well and I received a gift of wine. 12 months later I released some equity from my property and due to high early repayment charges, I was forced to stay with First Active. After being stung for administrative costs to the tune of £400, they still failed to organise a smooth switch. I am now in the process of remortgaging again and couldn't leave First Active quickly enough! But they strike again by failing to provide my solicitors with the final redemption figure in order for my remortgage to complete on time (today!). I have just spent 30 minutes trying to speak to someone at First Active and they have assured me that the final figure will be faxed to my solicitors by 2pm. Given my past experience with the company I am NOT confident that this will happen.

Very poor administration and Customer Service with First Active Mortgage.

I have been with them since June of this year. I switched to them after being recommended by a friend. He got his mortgage through a financial adviser, so I decided to take the plunge and cut out the middle man ;-)

Their website is very clear, and so is the First Active Mortgage application process. Should you have any problems or questions, their customer relations team are very easy to reach. There were no long hold times, and they were very friendly and helpful. My Bank of Scotland fixed rate was ending, so I wanted to switch to a new, hopefully better, fixed mortgage. I had a 100% mortgage on a 3 year fixed rate of 5% with the BOS (started in May 03). In the meantime, the value of my flat had gone up considerably, so there was no need for a 100% mortgage. My current deal with First Active is a 5 year fixed rate at 4.79%, and an arrangement fee of £395. I admit, I was a bit lucky, because shortly after rates went up. However, so did everyone else's, and they still offer a very competitive deal. What I also like is that they act very fast, perhaps to a fault with letters sometimes crossing in the mail. However, I was not in a hurry since I applied well in time before my fixed rate with my previous lender ended.

The First Active mortgage was easy to set up. The interest rate was good, and over-payments were easy and not penalised.

However, the level of fees to change mortgage were changed just before the fixed rate period of the mortgage ended, making it difficult and expensive to change mortgage companies after the fixed rate period.

Overall disappointing.

First Active Mortgage - I am pleased to be the first person to happily write a review on First Active.
I have been in the sticky situation of having to re-mortgage my ex partner out of my house and have hunted around for ages to get a good deal and I believe I found it with First Active.
All my basic legal fees and the valuation fee have been paid for me - no catches and not paid up front and refunded later either!
Not being in the position of being able to stump up a product fee, First Active have added it to my loan and ultimately although I know it adds up in interest - the choice was there for me to either pay up front or add to the loan. I appreciate being given that choice!
I have taken a fixed rate over 2 years of 4.59%. At the end of the 2 years, it returns to a standard variable rate of 5.6% which is far lower than a lot of the others I have looked at which are 6% and above. (bear in mind the interest rate will probably change between now and 2 years)
There are no Early Repayment Charges once the fixed period ends, just a closure fee which you get when you redeem any mortgage in full.
Having never done this before - I completed the easy to understand application form on the internet but being a chicken, I didn't submit it - I wanted to talk to someone to clarify a couple of points.
I called them and was spoken to by a representitive within minutes of connecting. She was brilliant and actually did the application over the phone, clarifying all the points I needed to talk about. I was credit checked there and then and given an agreement in principle right away. The whole process took 15 minutes in total and I was offered the fast track service which basically means I complete in 3-4 weeks not the usual 6-8.
I have been nothing but impressed with First Active since I first saw their website and would recommend them to anyone who is looking for a simple mortgage that performs!
There are also loads of other deals to be seen on their website.