London and country? any good

dunstonh

babybakey wrote: »

perhaps i got it wrong then , he did say they do the deals from the normal banks etc it was a quick call and not in depth so perhaps i didnt get what he meant right.

The bottom line is that anyone who does not call themselves independent will not be doing the role of an independent.

What he said doesnt indicate anything that any other commission based broker cannot do. If you want to make sure, then ask them if they include non commission paying deals. It is a bit of an old scam where tied agents or those with less authorisations try to give the impression they are independent when they are not. Research a few years back from a consumer group on customers seeing tied agents found over half of them thought they were seeing an independent. Whilst I doubt L&C would ever suggest otherwise (as they are reputable), it does appear in this case you are mistaken or the call wasnt really long enough to give a chance to explain the compliance side in sufficient detail at this stage.

Ximian

I used L&C for the first time around three years ago and I was impressed. Friendly and professional and will use them again. I never paid any fees to L&C but they received £534 from Abbey/Santander for arranging the mortgage.

dunstonh

Ximian wrote: »

I used L&C for the first time around three years ago and I was impressed. Friendly and professional and will use them again. I never paid any fees to L&C but they received £534 from Abbey/Santander for arranging the mortgage.

So, to put that in context, an independent with a fee of £500 would have seen you get a £34 rebate and give you access to a greater range of mortgages that L&C don't retail as they dont pay a commission (the fee can be factored in to compare commission and non commission like any other fee as well as the commission rebate where commission exists).

Ximian

dunstonh wrote: »

So, to put that in context, an independent with a fee of £500 would have seen you get a £34 rebate and give you access to a greater range of mortgages that L&C don't retail as they dont pay a commission (the fee can be factored in to compare commission and non commission like any other fee as well as the commission rebate where commission exists).

True, I never shopped around though and thought that "whole of market" was just that
I'm considering remortgaging and I am going to shop around this time.

superbabe612

I've just used L&C to get a mortgage and I couldn't be happier with their service. They are prompt, efficient, helpful and friendly. If I emailed them with a query they'd reply the same day, and they have never implied that I was taking up too much of their time (unlike our solicitors!). They will receive £250 from the Halifax for arranging my mortgage and they gave me a detailed illustration of what mortgage I could get direct from the Halifax (same rate with a £995 arrangement fee!).

Conrad

L&C are fine for very straight forward cases. If it gets more complex thay can be dire and very ststematic in thier approach.

ashleypride

dunstonh wrote: »

Are you sure? They never used to include any non-commission paying deals.

You have to ask yourself if they are not receiving commission, then how are they getting paid? Also, if they are including non-commission deals, then why are they not calling themselves independent? They call themselves whole of market.

Yes, on the web and on the phone they'll include non commission products. If you get a better deal with these, they'll let you know. Obviously they don't charge, so you would need to go direct to the lender or get a truly IFA.

swanny65

Excellent service from L&C. Applied 10/06/2011 for an offset with Coventry Building Society. Only required to send P60's. Offer received today dated yesterday.

ruggedtoast

I had a good experience with them too. My l & c adviser couldn't have been more helpful.

albo2002

One thing that worries about L&C - you look at their best buy table on their site and, for example, the best 5-year fixed rate deal they have is NatWest for 3.79% with a product fee of £999.

http://www.lcplc.co.uk/best-buys/

I then picked 5 random lenders to see what their best 5-year deal was.

The Post Office, Nationwide, Chelsea BS, First Direct and HSBC.

Only Nationwide had a WORSE best deal than the NatWest one.

ie http://mortgages.firstdirect.com/mortgage-rates

And then I looked at the NatWest site, and you can get a deal at 3.75% with no product fee if you take out a current account.. not mentioned on the L&C site!