Pepper Money are a lender we use regularly. We were one of the first Mortgage Brokers to use them when they first launched – they were terrible! So bad in fact I had to put a complaint in on behalf of our customer due to the problems their underwriters caused.
The best bit was that I was told by a senior member of staff to submit a complaint and he will deal with it. I submitted the complaint and they rejected it because it went to the wrong person who had not been involved with all the problems – and I think that sums up how bad they were, one person did not know what the other was doing – infact I am not sure anyone knew what they were doing!
However, that was maybe 2012/2013 and Pepper Money Mortgages have come a long LONG way since then. New management were brought in, new processes put in place and the dust settled and they have become a good solid Mortgage lender in the bad credit market.
One thing I do like about them is that their criteria is black and white. As a general rule of thumb, if you fit criteria you get your Mortgage. We have a 100% application to offer rate (at the time of writing) – which includes the first case we sent to them, despite the issues, they still completed. That can not be said about a lot of lenders in the bad credit market. Their criteria can be there but then the underwriters have a lot more discretion which is not always a good thing.
Where do Pepper Money sit?
Pepper are very good with Defaults and CCJs and also have some products aimed specifically for people in DMPs. Their underwriting can be complex at times with requests that other more mainstream lenders may not ask for at times but due to the amount we use them and the relationship we have with them, I would like to think we generally manage to keep on top of those quirks before they crop up.
I have many examples of applicants with CCJs/Defaults who have gone through with Pepper, they tend to be a good “worst case scenario” for people with defaults although there are times where applicants who may fit with Pepper can also be placed on the high street.
Rate wise there tends to be a slight jump from the high street to some of Pepper Money Mortgages products so you can probably get an idea of the part of the market they aim for, it is generally people who just fall out of fitting on the high street and have some degree of bad credit.