Broker v Yourself

noopys

dunstonh wrote: »

Although dont rule out fee basis with commission refunded (i.e. independent) as that can often result in the cheapest option..

Going for the cheapest option isn't necessarily the best. However, I feel that L&C brokers offer a brilliant service, which doesn't cost you a penny.

They get a commission from the lender (which they thoroughly deserve) and you get a hassle free mortgage, with all the paperwork done for you. Win/Win, cannot be faulted.

I'll certainly be using them again when my mortgage deal ends in two years.

dunstonh

noopys wrote: »

Going for the cheapest option isn't necessarily the best. However, I feel that L&C brokers offer a brilliant service, which doesn't cost you a penny.

They get a commission from the lender (which they thoroughly deserve) and you get a hassle free mortgage, with all the paperwork done for you. Win/Win, cannot be faulted.

I'll certainly be using them again when my mortgage deal ends in two years.

You are right. And going with a fees free broker is certainly not going for the best.

jamesd

noopys wrote: »

I feel that L&C brokers offer a brilliant service, which doesn't cost you a penny. They get a commission

You just said that it costs you nothing then that they are getting whatever the commission adds to the cost. Commission is not always built in, it's an add-on added by the broker to pay for their service, charged to you and paid to them by the lender.

You can get brokers who will not inflate the product price by the commission, so you pay less for the product. They do that either by charging a fee or by asking for a lower commission.

For small mortgages the commission may be the cheapest way to pay for the broker service. For large, a fee may well be cheaper.

missk_ensington

I am still seething over my broker experience 2 years ago who insisted I take a 3 yr fixed rate at just short of 6%. I said no, I want a tracker cos I think rates will get lower not higher, he 'strongly advised' me to take his advice since I was paying for it and take the fixed rate. I reluctantly agreed - now Im paying double what everyone else is paying, and to add insult to injury, his expert advice cost me £295

VIGILANT22

missk_ensington wrote: »

I am still seething over my broker experience 2 years ago who insisted I take a 3 yr fixed rate at just short of 6%. I said no, I want a tracker cos I think rates will get lower not higher, he 'strongly advised' me to take his advice since I was paying for it and take the fixed rate. I reluctantly agreed - now Im paying double what everyone else is paying, and to add insult to injury, his expert advice cost me £295

You had a choice whether to accept his advice or not.......

missk_ensington

VIGILANT22 wrote: »

You had a choice whether to accept his advice or not.......

Of course, as we all do, but when youre being told by an expert that you really must do as they say, there aren't many people who are going to contradict that. There was quite a lot of pressure to take the deal, I sometimes wonder if it carried extra commission to the tracker.

nomnomnom

VIGILANT22 wrote: »

You had a choice whether to accept his advice or not.......

She was paying for financial advice. You expect the broker to know what they are talking about. Anyway, she was giving her experience of a disadvantage as the OP asked. Unfortuately her disadvantage was to use a broker as it sounds like she had more sense then they did.

VIGILANT22

No, she said she didn't like the advice...She could easily have taken a second opinion without incurring any costs.

Nobody adviser or not has the right to say... "you really must do as they say"

Nobody, Banks, Government etc even the OP... had no crystal ball to predict these extraordinary events....Maybe she indicated she was a cautious investor and if so a fixed deal would have been appropriate....

Leon_W

nomnomnom

With missk_essington you are only getting one half of the story so I don't think anyone can say whether the advice given was bad or not. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing, and with the greatest will in the world, NOBODY predicted the savage cuts in interest rates that were needed in order to revive a flagging economy. Mortgage Brokers do not have a crystal ball and have to advise according to a persons circumstance.

In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, a few years back there was talk of interest rates having to rise to stem the threat of inflation ! So if missk_essington were perhaps a first time buyer with a small deposit with just enough income to cover the mortgage AT THAT TIME, I think it would have been pretty reckless to recommend anything other than a FIXED RATE.

regards

missk_ensington

Leon_W wrote: »

nomnomnom

With missk_essington you are only getting one half of the story so I don't think anyone can say whether the advice given was bad or not. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing, and with the greatest will in the world, NOBODY predicted the savage cuts in interest rates that were needed in order to revive a flagging economy. Mortgage Brokers do not have a crystal ball and have to advise according to a persons circumstance.

In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, a few years back there was talk of interest rates having to rise to stem the threat of inflation ! So if missk_essington were perhaps a first time buyer with a small deposit with just enough income to cover the mortgage AT THAT TIME, I think it would have been pretty reckless to recommend anything other than a FIXED RATE.

regards

I take exception to that comment, you certainly do not get half a story. It was the same advisor I had used 2 years previous so I trusted his judgement ahead of my own gien that he was the expert and I wasnt. I am certainly not a particularly cautious person - I started a clothing brand/manufacturing company in a recession! So certainly not one to be risk averse.

I wasnt a first time buyer, my LTV was 60%. I mooted that I would prefer a variable and he said that he didnt think that was a good idea, that rates could rise, I said I didnt think that was what would happen, he said he would strongly advise taking the fixed rate to be safe and thus, I did.