Martins View On Using Mortgage Brokers...

joseph_king

If your going with a specific broker you should always got more information about them. If you use the internet forums chances are that someone would have heard about them and/or their level of customer service!

dunstonh

joseph_king wrote: »

If your going with a specific broker you should always got more information about them. If you use the internet forums chances are that someone would have heard about them and/or their level of customer service!

Seeing as IFAs and independent mortgage advisers are largely a cottage industry, I would say its very unlikely there would be any internet coverage on the majority of firms. Only the regional or national salesforces are likely to get coverage and a general rule of thumb is to avoid them.

lisaartichoke

Just notify anyone who may consider using L&C , financial advisers for their mortgage or remortgage as recommended by Martin Lewis. I was given incorrect information and had a very bad experience with them and lost money. I am taking them to the Financial Ombudsman.:mad:

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_Andy_

lisaartichoke wrote: »

Just notify anyone who may consider using L&C , financial advisers for their mortgage or remortgage as recommended by Martin Lewis. I was given incorrect information and had a very bad experience with them and lost money. I am taking them to the Financial Ombudsman.:mad:

Not really an informative post - could you elaborate?

dunstonh

signing up and posting like that on your first post could mean you are an angry competitor trying to give them a bad name. If you want to post some detail, then others may take more interest.

benlowing

I have worked as a mortgage broker for several years. Most recently for a large London based company who offered both independent & whole of market services through different sales channels. The differences are as follows:

Independent:
Broker has access & must recommend from any deal in the market. In terms of fee charging, according to the FSA, an independent broker may charge a client fee, take the procuration fee or a combination of the two. However, if a fee is charged they should offer the client the option of paying a fee & the client taking the commission. This is, clearly, a complex way of paying for a service, but if a good independent broker charges a fee but will rebate the procuration fee it is in my mind a good service.

I would argue strongly that there is no reason why you should not pay a fee for a service, if you are going to get a premium service - & there are certainly guys out there who will look after you far better than average - but there aren't too many of them, or if what you are trying to do is very complex & will require significantly more work than average, but for poor commission (some non-dom, ex-pat deals, commercial loans in some circumstances) . I simply think it is reasonable to pay far amount for the work done; but you certainly should not pay a fee for someone recommending a top of best buy fixed rate, for example.

Whole of Market:
As with independent in terms of access to lenders, but with no broker fee. The income comes from procuration fees.

The only caveats to these positions in terms of access to deals is with lenders like HSBC & Britannia who do not accept applications from a broker & circumstances when a lender will 'dual price' between different sales channels.

Hope this clears a few things up...

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

benlowing, which of the two channels goes out to see clients at home at 8.30 in the evening, or 3pm on a Sunday?

albo2002

how do I find the nearest whole of the market mortgage broker who charges no fees near me? Or do I even need one near me?

I did a google search and the best I could find was firstmortgage.co.uk, but that seems to only cover Scotland

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

albo2002 wrote: »

how do I find the nearest whole of the market mortgage broker who charges no fees near me? Or do I even need one near me?

I did a google search and the best I could find was firstmortgage.co.uk, but that seems to only cover Scotland

Where are you? Most of the brokers on here would always recommend speaking to friends first and see if there is somebody who they trust and would recommend.

Don't write off paying a broker a fee as you could lose out on a good adviser. If you can get a good adviser who will also do it for free, you have to ask where they are getting paid from as not all lenders pay the broker and those that do, may not pay enough to make the case worth doning, as the procuration fee they receive is usually a percentage of the mortgage amount.

A £200,000 mortgage might pay £600 whereas a £50,000 mortgage might pay £150.

dunstonh

www.unbiased.co.uk is the UK database for IFAs. You can search by postcode but make sure you deselect the option to only show paying IFAs (those that pay to have a bigger "advert" on that site. Most dont).

An IFA may not be a mortgage adviser but most will have a mortgage adviser in house if they dont do it themselves.