Countrywide review

Keekles

The IDD being referred to will be in your Welcome Pack as a 'Terms of Business'.

Don't get me wrong as a Countrywide employee I'll try and stay as objective as possible but obviously I won't slate my employers.

Kingstreet has given you a comparison of panel vs whole of market brokers. Everything he's said is absolutely, 100% accurate. Can't contest it. Other than the "worst of all worlds" comment which is a little distasteful imo.

However.

With regards to the limited lender panel - if within Countrywide's ~20 lender panel they can't find a suitable lender to your needs that offers a highly competitive rate; I'd be amazed. I'd be even more amazed if the brokers on this website were using multiple lenders outside of our panel on a regular basis and judging from the Broker Blue's thread; all of our issues are seemingly the same. I can't see a real, true advantage of whole of market and I'd happily take a rate competition with anyone based on what's available to Countrywide.

Charge a fee? Yes, they do. So do a lot of brokers and essentially paying £249 for a service which encompasses you borrowing hundreds of thousands of pounds? I don't think it's unreasonable; especially given Kingstreet later states that his brokership charge exactly the same fee.

Push expensive / poor quality conveyancing & survey services. Interesting point. However, the broker you've spoken to is in a sales environment. If they don't sell? They don't earn. If they're not earning; what's the point in doing the job?

The conveyancers (Countrywide Conveyancing) are as hit & miss as any and every other solicitor that I've dealt with. The difference is, from a CW broker's point of view, that there's only so many times a CW broker won't be able to contact a solicitor direct before it's escalated to senior management and that phone call comes back pronto. If an independent conveyancer wants to avoid a broker? They will do; and short of turning up on their doorstep, there's not much you can do.

With regards to surveys - I'm pretty sure most brokers would encourage upgrades via lenders as opposed to recommending surveyors. It's a conflict because we should (and I certainly do) act in the client's best interests; which is paying a smaller upgrade fee than they would an independent surveyor. Being in SE London, I see more than enough downvaluations as of late and funnily enough I'm quite grateful when it's a CW survey that's been instructed by the lender (haven't done a single CW surveyor referral and we're not targeted on it fwiw).

Single ties to personal & general insurance, yes, we are. We offer you the best we can to what we're tied to - that doesn't necessarily mean you have to take it? Countrywide brokers provide an option, because insurance is exactly that - optional.

In terms of feedback on websites and such - you're always going to find more negative publicity than you are positive across multiple industries / sectors because naturally we're quick to leave a dirty mark on something as opposed to making an effort to praise where it's due.

If you sat with the broker and he made everything clear, understandable and wasn't misleading - what more could you ask of someone that's quite clearly competent at their job and likely to look after you throughout the process?

Mortgage_Mark_2

Who exactly is on your panel, Keekles?

Keekles

Mortgage_Mark wrote: »

Who exactly is on your panel, Keekles?

Accord
Aldermore
BM Sols
Coventry
GE
Kensington
Leeds BS
Halifax
Nationwide
Natwest
Platform
Abbey (Santander)
TMW
Virgin
Woolwich

They're off the top of my head - likely to be some I've missed. We have access to 'off-panel' lenders including Principality, Skipton BS, Nottingham, Scottish Widows, Marsden etc. - the only 'restriction' with regards to off-panel is we have to have a legitimate, justifiable reason for going off-panel, i.e. the case doesn't fit the criteria of any panel lenders generally being the norm.

Mortgage_Mark_2

Thanks.

FYI - "I'd be even more amazed if the brokers on this website were using multiple lenders outside of our panel on a regular basis".

I use several not on your list fairly regularly, but then in fairness we are contractor specialists and you wouldn't have too many options in that list. Well, two in reality, one of which you'd do everything you could to avoid like the plague!

Keekles

No points for picking out the one to avoid in the above list

FWIW I wasn't looking to berate or antagonise any brokers - whole of market or otherwise; just I think sometimes it can be a little too critical on EA brokers especially when OP was suggesting the guy actually done, on the face of it, a thoroughly good job.

This job like many others is often about the person sat in the chair - not the colour of the chair they're sat in.

Funny_old_game

But you have to admit the conveyance service is woeful. I used to be beaten to death not trying to flog this cr+p service over 10 years ago. So I walked.

Mortgage_Mark_2

Keekles wrote: »

No points for picking out the one to avoid in the above list

FWIW I wasn't looking to berate or antagonise any brokers - whole of market or otherwise; just I think sometimes it can be a little too critical on EA brokers especially when OP was suggesting the guy actually done, on the face of it, a thoroughly good job.

This job like many others is often about the person sat in the chair - not the colour of the chair they're sat in.

That's a fair point, and I agree, however I also think EA based brokers are tainted by association to estate agents and the crappy business methods they have!

kingstreet

Keekles wrote: »

Other than the "worst of all worlds" comment which is a little distasteful imo

I'm sorry you feel that's distasteful but let's face it, national estate agents have to find all kinds of ways of getting clients in front of advisors, right upto telling them their offers won't be put forward if they don't agree to an appointment.

Now, that comes under the heading of distasteful in my book.

If your services were that good for the customer, wouldn't they find their way to you via best buys and referrals?

An average national EA is charging the vendor a minimum of £2,500 + VAT, then does everything it possibly can to maximise its earnings in every possible way from both vendor and purchaser. It uses ignorance of alternatives to achieve that and even after all the years of regulation we've had we haven't moved forward with that at all, IMHO.

It maximises income by minimising the number of lenders on its panel to secure the highest procuration fees and valuation work from those lenders.

It secures higher rates of commission and prices its insurance products higher than are otherwise available to generate even greater income.

Conveyancing - the prices are higher and the service worse. That's plain from the number of people dissatisfied with the service they've received.

Finally, surveys. Not content with all the above, why not have your survey carried out by the same firm...

I don't doubt that there are some good people working for national EAs. How they tolerate their employers' practises, I cannot imagine.

I've worked for three smaller firms in the past, one as an IFA and two as a Winterthur AR. In every case, the client had the choice of using us, or not. They had the choice of different insurance providers (IFA) and whole mortgage market (for commission paying products blah bah).

Often their payslips and ID had been taken off them by a national chain EA advisor for "safe-keeping" or they'd paid a "lifetime fee" so felt they had to go back so they could get value for money, even when our service was fee-free.

I may not be particularly objective but you are never going to convince me chain advice is anything other than a near-monopoly for some large firms to maximise profits with scant regard for value for money for the consumer.

BTW, in the last three months the lenders we have used are;-

Halifax
Nationwide
Woolwich
Leeds
Dudley
Precise
NatWest
Coventry
Principality
Santander
Nottingham
Virgin Money
Tipton & Coseley.

We may not have used every lender in the market, but if we needed to we could have done so. Being newbuild specialists, we are often looking for lenders with a specific newbuild niche, such as accepting incentives.

Thirty years in financial services today. Happy birthday to me. I sometimes wish I'd never bothered given where we are after all the upheaval since 1988/9.

kingstreet

I've had a !!!!! of a day today and today wasn't the day to respond to this thread.

However, I've done it, so there it stands...

JustinR1979

kingstreet wrote: »

I've had a !!!!! of a day today and today wasn't the day to respond to this thread.

However, I've done it, so there it stands...

I'm glad you did, cracking read