Mortgage Broker & Fees

TMoose

Hi All

I'm new to the process of getting a mortgage and am looking at approx 210K mortgage on 250K house. I have been in touch with Charcol and chatted to their advisor this afternoon. However, I am a little unsure about one thing... Charcol state that their fee is 0.65% (min £450), with £150 payable on application, non-refundable if the application is not successful.

Is this standard? I'm fairly savvy about the mortgage market, however I like the idea of a broker onside to chase the application, improve chances of acceptance...

Thanks for any advice.

Moose

dunstonh

John Charcoal market themselves as an independent mortgage broker. That means they offer a fee basis. The commission on an mortgage should then either be rebated or used to offset that fee. That is standard for fees. Although fee based advisers typically use fixed fees in monetary terms, not percentage.

So, if you choose the fee option, then what you see is fine. Although you can probably do better as 0.65% on your mortgage is expensive. Find an independent locally who will do the mortgage for around £500-£750 fixed fee and you could get more than that back on commission rebate.

yelf

considering the amount of work that goes into a mortgage, and the number that get declined, then having an upfront non-refundable fee is perfectly understandable and very common

kaych

how about using a 'free' mortgage advisor?

dunstonh

kaych wrote: »

how about using a 'free' mortgage advisor?

Its an option but a "free" mortgage adviser could be more expensive than a fee based one.