Would you reccommend Motley Fool mortgage service

MiM

The mortgage on my wife to be (next Saturday!)'s flat has just reverted to the standard rate of 7.19% with Nat West.

We had tried selling but after no interest for months we're now renting it out.

Not everyone will quote for it because it's slightly complicated, it's the downstairs flat and she's also the freeholder for the whole building (one flat upstairs).

Does anyone know if the Fool's mortgage service is a decent way of getting a good deal or is the advice weighted to commission paying partners?

Any other advice appreciated. There's about £60,000 showing and it's worth about £100-£110k. We've both got good credit histories and reasonable salaries.

dunstonh

I would not recommend the MF service. Its just an internet front end using similar data that all mortgage brokers use.

The service is not independent and only includes lenders which pay them commission. Copied and pasted from their website:

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3. How can you afford to help me for free?

The lenders with whom we place mortgages on your behalf pay us what's known as a procuration fee for arranging the mortgage. By dealing efficiently by email, telephone and post, the procuration fees are sufficient to cover the cost of the mortgage service we provide.

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So, that means an independent mortgage broker charging you say £500 offering a non-commission paying lender could easily come in cheaper over the term of the deal than MF only offering commission paying lenders. A £20pm saving over 5 years is £1200. So, paying a £500 fee would see you £700 better off than a fees free broker.

Better still, an adviser with fee offset. In other words, one that agrees a fee but will use commission to offset it but also include non commission payers. So, you either get "fees free" if that is best or non-commission payer if that is.

Also, the fool website says "Fool Financial Services Ltd also works with other mortgage brokers, London & Country, John Charcol and Charcol."

In which case, why not use them directly if you want an internet service rather than a local service.

Lastly, I would have doubts over their sincerity. On the investment side they promote in their articles certain investment products. The same investment products they have for sale on commission basis from their website. There are better versions available but they dont mention those. They appear to have gone from a website that discusses financial matters to one that promotes the products that they sell and conveniently ignore the better options or alternatives.

Lunar_Eclipse

dunstonh wrote: »

They appear to have gone from a website that discusses financial matters to one that promotes the products that they sell and conveniently ignore the better options or alternatives.

I agree completely. The MF was the first financial website of its type that I found, years ago, but having not visited for a fair while (2 years or so), I couldn't believe how poor and utterly biased the content was when I looked last week. There's hardly any advice or even articles of any interest now since they clearly promote just one or two companies/products. Such a shame.

MiM

Many thanks Dunston and Lunar, that's much appreciated as ever.

getmore4less

Allthough the MF main site has gone commercial the discussion boards are an outstanding resource for many things financial.