Martins View On Using Mortgage Brokers...

Former_MSE_Dan · 16 June 2008 at 2:00PM

In case anyone hasnt seen it, this thread by martin on the new draft of the brokers article will be of interest

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=976691

SallysChateau · 1 July 2008 at 12:58PM

I've been pouring through all the advice on mortgage brokers and have found it invaluable, I e mailed London and Country and within five minutes I had an advisor on the phone, unlike HSBC who have yet to respond to my request of 4 hours ago.

Tony_Dickinson_2 · 8 July 2008 at 8:52PM

Martin

When are you ever going to stop scare mongering people in to believing what you say!!

Whole of market advisors who charge a fee are the correct mortgage/IFA brokers to approach. The fact that they charge a fee means that the advice that they give back will be totally unbiased as the advisor will not favour a commision paying lender over a non commision paying lender. If you want a monkey to deal with your finances then pay peanuts, (nothing). If you want a professional who will source you the right product regardless of what commision is paid to him then like all things in life, you have to pay for the advice.

With regards to Endowments. All I can say is keep on with the scaremongering Martin...... You have got that many people cashing their endowments that its making the bonus's payable to the rest if the endowment holders a pretty penny with many polices worth 4 times what they originally where. A terminal bonus on one policy due to mature this year is 92% of the plans value so instead of it paying out 100k, im now getting 192k.

And re PPI. If I had taken your advice I would have cancelled my cover a long time ago, meaning that when I got made redundant in January of this year I would have been well up the creek without a paddle. So far its paid out £750.00 per month for the last 6 months meaning that I can sleep at night, plus I have the comfort that I have another 6 months left to go. Its always better to pay the premium when you have money rather than try and pay your mortgage, look after a 6 month old baby (born 1 month before I got laid off) and the household bills, when you have no income. Or did you forget to mention that part!!!!!!

Cheers

Really though, getting the right advice is worth far more than jumping on the band wagon and getting your name in lights, or is it Martin, you tell me. After all you have so many commision paying links to insurers and lenders from your website!!!!!!!

RyanP_2 · 11 July 2008 at 12:06PM

Martin maybe its about time you changed your mortgage fee ethos Ok I dont mean to be rude but please Let me explain why Martin needs to change his No Fee ethos in the curent climate.

Times are changing rapidly within the mortgage market and also changing for mortgage brokers. There are alot of mortgage advisors going out of business becaue the customer can get cheaper deals going direct. The public can go onto price comparison sites and find the best deal for themselves, alot of the time these deals take longer to go through, you talk to sales staff rather than advisors and the public make there own decisions based on their knowledege. This is fine and alot of people are doing it.

Whole of Market brokers have always had a sourcing system which gives them access to the whole of the market enabling them to find the most competitive deal. However over the last few months the banks offered better deals for the customer direct, these deals are not sholwing on the sourcing system. Brokers Do Not Get Paid A Commision If the deal is not on their sourcing system and the customer goes direct.

There are two key things happening in this transitional stage.

1. Mortgage brokers are giving up on the mortgage market because they feel that they cant provide the customer the best deal because the customer is better off going direct. Thus brokers they are not getting paid.

2. Customers are blindly navigating themselves through the mortgage decision and been sold mortgages rather than making an advised decision.

The only way for both parties to benefit is for a mortgage broker to research the Whole Of The Market including the direct deals and to advice and reccommend the most suitable product. If the most suitable product is a direct deal then he or she should be able to Charge A Fee for the research, advice and time that they have spent ensuring the customer makes the right decision for themselves.

This fee may not be as much as what brokers once received in commission but it ensures that the customer is getting the advise and the broker is getting paid for his or her services. I would charger a fee of £200. There is hardly any profit been made out of this £200.

Tony_Dickinson_2 · 11 July 2008 at 12:52PM

It would be interesting to see Martins qualifications in the financial world !!!!!!!

Does this guy really know what he is talking about or is he just another scaremongerer making a quick buck for himself? I really cant stand this sort of "unqualified pub talk". I hope that people wake up and smell the coffee.

Is there any redress against Martin should we want to take action against his very publiced views and scaremongering, of course not, because he isnt regulated by the FSA or the OFT and as such is using his views and opinions to impact on the way people view financial products and the industry. Hazzard to say that the majoity of what this guy goes on about is incorrect and misleading.

But I guess everyone loves a guy who makes out that he knows what he is on about and gives you advice, sorry opinions for free, (even though he is not qualified and not regulated).

Come on the FSA, shut this guy down or at least make him account for the missery and ill fortune has has put on many people with his inaccurate ranting, sorry views.

Martin, will you be setting up your own compensation scheme to supply redress for all those who have followed your advice and been financially disadvantaged because of it, would you have paid my mortgage for the last 6 months if I had have followed your advice and cancelled my PPI, hmm I thought not.

Its always better to pay your premiums whilst your earning, than try to pay your mortgage, insurances, bills and council tax when you have no income at all. Come on guys, this is basic common sence, unless of course you have Martin in your ear.

Tony_Dickinson_2 · 11 July 2008 at 1:01PM

Hi ask, London & Country if they are true "Whole of Market" advisors. The FSA allows firms to class themselves as whole of market as long as they work from a panel of lenders which "represents" the whole of market, i.e. prime lenders, sub prime lenders, self certification lenders etc.

Specifically ask them if they will source you direct deals. If the answer is no or of they fill you with loads of mumbo jumbo and skirt around the issue then you know that they are no truly "Whole of Market". I can recommend a firm who is truely whole of market and if the right advice is to send you directly to a lender, (i.e. the broker wont get paid commision) then that the advice yo will recieve. Of course you have to pay them a fee for the service, business arn't charities but I guess its all down to the quality of advice that you want to recieve. P.S. I dont work for either of the firms in question.

brianrhill · 23 July 2008 at 5:48PM

SallysChateau wrote: »

I've been pouring through all the advice on mortgage brokers and have found it invaluable, I e mailed London and Country and within five minutes I had an advisor on the phone, unlike HSBC who have yet to respond to my request of 4 hours ago.

Abbey don't actually have any "advisers" because they are not allowed to advise on what's best for you or what suits your requirements. Why didn't you try a local adviser instead of a call centre like L/C? They're probably loads more experienced and qualified.

brianrhill · 23 July 2008 at 5:52PM

Tony_Dickinson wrote: »

It would be interesting to see Martins qualifications in the financial world !!!!!!!

Does this guy really know what he is talking about or is he just another scaremongerer making a quick buck for himself? I really cant stand this sort of "unqualified pub talk". I hope that people wake up and smell the coffee.

Is there any redress against Martin should we want to take action against his very publiced views and scaremongering, of course not, because he isnt regulated by the FSA or the OFT and as such is using his views and opinions to impact on the way people view financial products and the industry. Hazzard to say that the majoity of what this guy goes on about is incorrect and misleading.

But I guess everyone loves a guy who makes out that he knows what he is on about and gives you advice, sorry opinions for free, (even though he is not qualified and not regulated).

Come on the FSA, shut this guy down or at least make him account for the missery and ill fortune has has put on many people with his inaccurate ranting, sorry views.

Martin, will you be setting up your own compensation scheme to supply redress for all those who have followed your advice and been financially disadvantaged because of it, would you have paid my mortgage for the last 6 months if I had have followed your advice and cancelled my PPI, hmm I thought not.

Its always better to pay your premiums whilst your earning, than try to pay your mortgage, insurances, bills and council tax when you have no income at all. Come on guys, this is basic common sence, unless of course you have Martin in your ear.

I do actually agree with most of your comments Tony. Martin should state that he has no appropriate qualifications to advise individuals on their financial circumstances as far as regulated products are concerned and is not regulated by the FSA, and therefore not covered by any compensation schemes.

brianrhill · 23 July 2008 at 5:57PM

Sarah_Williams wrote: »

Well, it is OK to say go independent but are they really independent? When I remortgaged my house in past I decided to look around and get advice from so called Independent Brokers but what I discovered did not make sense to me. Perhaps, other people may be surprised to learn this.

Correct me if I am wrong, according to FSA, any mortgage broker can call themselves Independent as long as they give customers choice of paying fee and return the commission. This broker played 2 roles. He was Independent and commission based. I asked him to explain.

He charged a fee of £675 when "Commission Based" but bumped up his fees to 2% of loan value, when an "Independent Broker". So in my case, the fee would jump to around £2000. So I questioned, would your advice be any different if I wanted your advice as an Independent Broker? No, he replied. It made no sense to me, if his advice is the same whether he acts as a commission based or independent then why would I pay him tripple the fee?

I took my business elsewhere simply because I did not trust him because he played two roles. Also, to me the word "Independent" means someone who just cares about his customers but it didn't seem that way. If he had just been independent and charged me £2000 for his advice, I would have had more respect for him.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Independent brokers are not what the word implies.

Hi Sarah,

Please don't tar all IMA's with the same brush just because you've had one poor experience.

Brian