Countrywide Mortgages charges

betmunch

The £99 fee is an admin fee. It is paid only if the mortgage completes and it is detailed on the KFI as such a fee and payable on completion.

Any decent Countrywide broker will also explain the fee while going through the IDD to clarify the advice is free, but the admin side of things needs to be paid for.

As for being "roped into" seeing a Countrywide Advisor, I'm sorry, but if you dont want to see him/her just say no. To sign up with Countrywide you should have sat through 3 appointments, if you didnt want to sign up then you had plenty of time to walk away

veryhopeful77

im with countrywide
and ive had to pay a 99 booking fee too
i got a breakdown of costs and so far they said its £1556!
£400 was a valuation fee and another £400 to stert using them
im told by broker who works for them i have to pay a £999 arrangement fee thats added to the loan
seem like one big money racket
they also charged us £20 each plus vat to do a credit check on us! the lender had already done one!
broker tried to sell me countrywide buildings/contents insurance at £51 a month! nationwide have quoted me £29! it pays toshop around
also broker said do i want a will, life insurance critical ilness sick pay and redundacy cover! if i took them all out id be broke!
i never agreed to use countrywide, broker just signed me up

betmunch

veryhopeful77 wrote: »

i never agreed to use countrywide, broker just signed me up

Didnt you sign anything then?

Also, the £400 to start things up was probably the solicitors so not a mortgage cost

foued

We are in the process of arranging our first mortgage through Countrywide and I have to say we have found our advisor to be extremely helpful, knowledgeable and efficient. She explained very clearly in the first meeting that the £99 fee is to cover administrative costs, and has been rigorous and thorough in explaning he various costs. She found us a very favourable rate, has been supportive throughout the whole buying process, and we haven't felt pressurised into buying any additional products (we were firm from the outset that we wanted to shop around). I'm sorry that other forumites have had bad experiences- certainly it's a very large company and there are always drawbacks in going through a panel-based rather than whole of market broker, but we have been very satisfied with our experience so far.

dunstonh

there are always drawbacks in going through a panel-based rather than whole of market broker, but we have been very satisfied with our experience so far.

Personality aside (as tied or panel advisers can be very nice and efficient), there is absolutely no point limiting yourself to a panel of mortgages when there is no need to. Especially a tied/panel adviser you are paying a fee to in addition to them getting commission.