My Mortgage Calculator Theory

Legacy_user

Is it only me here... (quite probably, yet again)

Because i do find that a lot of the time, mortgage calculators seem to exclude much better rates, almost like you can constantly trick them, whilst knowing that a lower figure exists elsewhere- than the 1 theyre churning out for you.

yes.... and Another thing, they also dont appear to actually be calculating anything......?

Most of the reults seem to 'Miraculously' appear.... kind of almost instantly- which would, andcorrect me if im wrong...appear to be a sign that theyre using the same set of lenders every time- which to me, appears slightly odd dont- dont you agree....?

Woby_Tide

I always found Charcol to be fairly impartial when calculating in that it matched the info I had found personally and also the less unscrupulous financial advisors had found. I agree that a few of the so called calculators are weighted towards certain mainstream lenders. Haven't used them myself but London & Country(Is that correct) tend to get reasonable write ups from others

as for results being 'instant', I think thats more to do with the servers behind it, whilst they obviously can't be guaranteed to be 100% up to date with the very latest offers I think within reason probably >97% accurate. They are usually only working a small set of data provided by you, Charcol tends to be a bit more indepth hence why I found it more reliable

if you want horrendously biased information (i.e. a mortgage choice of Bristol& West, Bristol&West and occasionally Bristol&West )taken from a tiny proportion of lenders out there I can heartily recommend any mortgage advisor working in a Connells Estate Agency

DiggingOut

I'm sure they do use the same set of lenders every time. They will have a table of lenders with various rates, and will throw your criteria at that table to determine what is available, then calculate the payments for each one that fits. The actual calculation of a mortgage payment is a very fast calculation for a computer, or even a calculator.

Probably each site will have a different set of lenders, though there will be a lot of crossover between them, and the best ones, like Charcol, will have the vast majority of lenders.

Mortgageman

By "calculators" can I assume you mean the product finding ones (as on the Charcol site), rather than generic ones (like how much will my payment be on a rate of x%)

Simply by the way they work, the online comparisson engines will be using a table of lenders - this table will be larger for some, and smaller for others, but will still be a panel

they also have to narrow down a huge range of products (even with only a slection of lenders) and therefore will ask specific, boolean questions (such as "do you want to pay upfront fees") rather than the shades of gray that speaking to someone will allow ("well, as long as they are under £500...")

Haven't used them myself but London & Country(Is that correct) tend to get reasonable write ups from others

Thanks. However we have made a decision not to offer this type of service on our website, for many of the reasons danny pointed out