mortgage advice services, derby ?reputable company

cavvyfan

Hiya we were contacted by this company last night by phone. They said we had given them permission to phone us last year - as our present mortgage deal ends in 2012 _this is of course possible but I have no recollection, however their information about our mortgage deal is correct.
I asked if they covered the whole of the market - and they said they did - but i didn't know what else to ask them.
I was just wondering if anyone out there had had dealings with this company and if they could be recommended?


Many Thanks

ACG

I spent 6 months working with 3 advisors from MAS at a new company they had joined. To be quite straight part of the reason i left was that i didnt feel comfortable with the way 2 of those did business. The third person was a good advisor but he was the minority from what i can gather.

All i would say is look out for the fee they charge (i wouldnt be surprised if its over £1500!!!... Im not saying MAS do this, but the advisors i worked with would sometimes add their fee to the loan, i wasnt part of the meeting with clients so not sure whether this was discussed but its not the norm).

Personally from the people i have met they wouldnt get through the door, but they are good at their job. As a company i think the whole machine works pretty well - but you pay a lot for that service.

Thats my opinion based on some MAS ex employees, im not saying MAS work like,

cavvyfan

Hey much appreciated thank u - just feel very vulnerable as need to switch to repayment ASAP and our financial advisor has retired!!!

GMS

Could you not switch to repayment with your current lender?

kingstreet

Any adviser should look at "retention" products offered by your existing lender alongside those from new lenders which will earn them a commission.

Check your lender's offerings and see what the adviser tells you, before revealing you know about them.

Avoid committing yourself to "lifetime" fees as you may not want to use this firm again in future.

A reasonable broker will charge no fee and be paid a commission by the lender, or a small fee on top of the commission if you have a smallish mortgage.

It is better to seek recommendations from friends and family and not to accept the attention of "door knockers" as cold-calling (they claimed they aren't doing this) mortgages is prohibited by the FSA.

cavvyfan

Thank you Kingstreet - I suppose the phone call has mobilised me into action - without a clear direction! Even tho our financial advisor has retired we have been transferred to another company - so there is an advisor available, it's just that I don't know them at all, and after reading the guidance offered on this site - the main message appears to be "shop around", which is great when it's shoes, but it's a bit like trying to understand another language.

cavvyfan

Hi GMS - thank u - Im sure we could swap with our present lender- I will enquire- but Im just trying to explore(pretty unsuccessfully) what the best options may be available for us

bridget123

Hi... I have just been browsing the internet looking for reviews on this company. Exactly as above, we received the call and they said they had spoken to my husband reference our mortgage and possibly changing it and I said I wasn't interested?? And 2 weeks ago again they called and spoke to my husband who just went along with their conversation and said it maybe worth looking into.. They seem to know when our mortgage renewal was due (March this year) and gave us all the speal. Tonight, an adviser came round and once again took all the details which they have had before and said that they could save us some money. Basically they can offer us exactly what we are paying now but have an extra £7k / £8k which could use to pay off a loan or simply put it into savings. This includes their fee of £1,795 and also says that they are governed by the FSA..
I am a strong believer that you don't get anything for nothing and so far all I have found on this company is that they are a real pain for cold calling over and over again.. and hanging up if they didn't get a particular person. This is probably the company which have been constantly calling and hanging up over the last 24 months!!! (conveniently has stopped recently)??
Alarm bells are ringing with this company. She is due to come back on Friday to confirm which lending company they will be using.
They are basically the mortgage broker.. for £1,795 they will find us a good mortgage deal, throw the tempting worm to make it sound appealing (the extra £7/£8k), they set up the cancellation process and the new mortgage process and going forward, any problems with our mortgage or query's - then we go through them...

I don't know... gut feeling is saying no.

I am hoping to just get their quote, go to my existing mortgage provider (for about 15 years) and see if they can match it.

dunstonh

This includes their fee of £1,795

Blimey. HOW MUCH?!!!?

They are taking you for a ride. If it was £1795 with all commissions on mortgage and insurances rebated you may just think that was worthwhile. However, it will be that PLUS commission. That is a rip off.

Many local advisers would do it fees free (and keep commission only) or do it for a lower fee and rebate commission or include non commission paying deals.

ACG

£1800, that isnt surprising if you see my first post on here.
Do you actually need the extra 7-8k? do you have a loan? If not you might be better just having a slightly smaller mortgage.

As Dunston says you can get a local broker to do it for a hell of a lot less than that! I agree you get what you pay for, but they are not that much better than any other company out there.

bridget123

thank you for your replies.. The extra 7/8k is something tempting with current economics and would be useful but I wont be using this company.. I have contacted my current mortgage lender today and we are going in on Saturday to discuss however we did have a home improvement loan against the mortgage last year for 7k which they say is a separate product and cannot be wrapped up into the mortgage, if we choose to pay that off/cancel it or go to another company we would have to pay 3% to do so? I don't remember been told that last year but do you know if this is normal?

As for MAS... I just know they will gloss everything up and do their best selling technique tomorrow. Can I just confirm I'm right in saying that they are "not" allowed to charge £1795 from a brokers area and if this is reference the FSA? Just want to know my rights/facts before she comes knocking the door trying to talk us round. Also would they have the right to make a charge for doing whatever she has done since yesterday (although we haven't agreed anything and I would tell her to take a long walk off a short pier if does)...