Mortgage advisor didn't offer me the best mortgage for my circumstances :/

JPS

Hi guys

I bought my first house last year with the help of a mortgage advisor from Right Move. I'm loving being a home owner and already have the overpayments flowing out!

I used a mortgage advisor at Right Move to help get me my first mortgage as I am self employed it made it a lot easier as he did all the leg work (many banks didn't want to know because of being self employed).

I wasn't that clued up on mortgages before I bought the house, but as I'm sure many of you have done too, once I moved into my property I was researching mortgages and now have a very good understanding of them. This is when I stumbled across offset mortgages and what an absolute hidden gem they are for certain circumstances. Without going into too much detail, I would be *miles* better off with an offset. My savings are sitting there earning a pittance when they could be offsetting my mortgage. It's eating me up!

Luckily I'm only on a 2 year fixed mortgage and I am now half way through - but what has annoyed me is the fact that my mortgage advisor never even MENTIONED offset mortgages to me. If he did, I would have bitten his hand off! So I had to pay them a £400 fee to go onto what is, for me, the wrong mortgage quite frankly.

Do you think if I told Right Move about this they would be able to do anything now? I want to be on an offset mortgage but I can't switch for another year without having to pay an early repayment charge of 2-3%. Even more annoyingly, I'm with the Halifax who do not offer offset mortgages, so I cannot try to change product with the same provider.

Thanks for your help

chambta

Well done for reading up on the subject. If you didn't get what you feel was, in retrospect appropriate at least you will know to sort your own mortgage out next time.

The good news is that if you wait a few months you'll be ready to apply to remortgage elsewhere.

Thrugelmir

JPS wrote: »

many banks didn't want to know because of being self employed).

Even more annoyingly, I'm with the Halifax who do not offer offset mortgages,

You employed someone to find you a mortgage. This they did successfully.

Easy after the event to add yet another layer of complexity to the inquiry.

kingstreet

Are you sure there was an offset product available to you, based on your circumstances and loan to value?

Would you have been prepared to accept a higher rate applying to your mortgage, in return for the offset of the interest on your savings?

Would the amount of savings you have, make that worthwhile?

An advisor, when considering products asks you questions. Gathering of "soft facts" helps plan the most suitable options. If the answers to those questions did not lead the advisor to believe an offset product would suit you, he wouldn't mention it.

ACG

If you believe you were miss sold the mortgage then the first port of call is complain to the company giving the advice - you would/should have been given an IDD at the time which would have had contact details for who to complain to. If you dont then ask right move (or do you mean your move?).

As above though, if Halifax were the only lender who would lend to you and they do not have an offset account then they have done nothing wrong. Likewise if they only had a panel of providers and any of the offset providers were not on that panel, then they have done nothing wrong.

But do your complaint, they will investigate it and decide whether they are in the wrong or not. If not, then you can take it to the financial ombudsman if your not happy with their response - but you have to give them the opportunity to put it right first.

dunstonh

Do you think if I told Right Move about this they would be able to do anything now? I want to be on an offset mortgage but I can't switch for another year without having to pay an early repayment charge of 2-3%. Even more annoyingly, I'm with the Halifax who do not offer offset mortgages, so I cannot try to change product with the same provider.

The mortgage broker would have asked questions to narrow down the types of mortgages available and see which fitted your needs. Did you at any point tell them about the desire to make large overpayments or that you would have large savings amounts available after the mortgage was taken out?

You have an ERC to pay if you move now which indicates you bought a mortgage with special terms. So, clearly some narrowing down of options took place to lead to the mortgage you have now.

Was the broker whole of market, limited panel or single tied? (they may not have had an offset mortgage available), did you qualify for offset mortgage lending criteria? Would you have been prepared to accept the higher interest rate than you have?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

What loan to value was the original mortgage (generally only available on lower LTV products)