Refused mortgage through broker - better luck direct?

pelethecat

Sorry this is a little long, but trying to be as clear as possible. I would really appreciate any thoughts anyone could give me. I'm a first time buyer, with LTV of 66% and never been in arrears in my life, so was surprised when I was refused a mortgage with Northern Rock.

I applied for the mortgage through a broker, which was declined as NR said they could find no evidence of me having any credit history at all at my current address.
Doing my own credit search through both Experian and Equifax, using my current address, brought up my bank accounts, credit card and a couple of phone and insurance contracts.
But - neither Experian or Equifax have confirmation of me being on the electoral roll in my current address. This might be because my lovely council use the address 'basement flat' on the electoral roll whereas the official post office address, and the one all my accounts are in is 'garden flat'. Northern Rock apparently did find me on the electoral roll under the 'basement flat' address, but couldn't find any credit history, even though we gave them the 'garden flat' address on the application.

Now, my broker says that Northern Rock are applying very high standards to who they accept, only taking the cream of the crop, and I should go with a different lender that takes people with lower credit rating. Obviously this is frustrating because I can see that my credit report is fine - the only issue on my reports is the electoral roll mix up, but NR did find me on the roll nevertheless.

The Northern Rock rate was 3.69 while the rate my broker recommends I go with is 3.95, making a difference of about £500 over the two year fix. (other terms are very similar)

Does anyone have any thoughts over whether I would be likely to have any more joy going direct to Northern Rock myself - as I can then talk to a branch manager and show them copies of my credit reports, electoral roll, etc? Or whether I should just accept to pay the extra £500 and go with a less picky lender through my broker? (The broker is fees-free whole of market).

Thanks in advance!

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Simple. Correct the electoral roll - resubmit a correction. Go online to equifax and insert comments to your profile. Start the ball rolling.

pelethecat

Thanks TeddyRuckspin!

I'm a bit confused though - as NR do know I'm on the electoral roll as they found me at 'basement flat' so not sure if updating the roll will make the difference. The broker's also say that NR will have searched for me using the 'garden flat' address in the application but found no history - though maybe this didn't happen. It's a little frustrating hearing everything via the broker rather than direct - for him the £500 difference isn't significant, but I'd rather not pay it if I can avoid it!

So I can't work out whether it's the electoral roll issue or not and whether to spend time correcting this when it may not even work, or just get a different mortgage more quickly (I'm the last link in the chain so want to move quickly before it all falls apart).

magiciansgirl

It will be an electoral role issue I'm sure. It's really easy to correct this but you should go via the council first; I did. They then notify the Post Office and you can copy all correspondence in to the credit ref. agencies.