Broker - too good to be true?

Thrugelmir

junglejame911 wrote: »

I appreciate that but what is the reason for the lack of transparency? Surely it's in everyone's best interests if customers are aware of the details of a particular lenders criteria?

Lending is a commercial activity with limited funds being available. Criteria can be tightened or loosened at a flick of a switch overnight. As risk management sets in place board level policy.

amnblog

junglejame911 wrote: »

I appreciate that but what is the reason for the lack of transparency? Surely it's in everyone's best interests if customers are aware of the details of a particular lenders criteria?

The mortgage market is sluggish as it is with plenty of inherent delays- perhaps people might apply to a more appropriate lender in the first instance if the criteria were clearer?

Credit score is a dark art where clients collect points for many factors in their profile. With mainstream lenders it is an automatic system.

The staff cannot tell you why you failed because they simply don't know.

If the knowledge of how the points work were available, the system would be open to manipulation.

The lending staff and experienced brokers will have a idea of what can be beneficial or detrimental to your score, but that is all.

amnblog

Jungle

You do have to meet a broker for them to be professional or legitimate.

My concern in this case would be if this has been progressed through Halifax without the broker initially checking your credit file.

junglejame911

amnblog wrote: »

Jungle

You do have to meet a broker for them to be professional or legitimate.

I assume from the tone of the sentence you mean do not?

amnblog wrote: »

My concern in this case would be if this has been progressed through Halifax without the broker initially checking your credit file.

I am not sure to be honest, he did ask about credit history and took it at face value when I told him we had no past credit issues (which is true). He mentioned that if DIP had been issued by Halifax we had passed the relevant credit checks. . . this worried me as I understood Halifax only did an initial "soft" check?

amnblog

junglejame911 wrote: »

I assume from the tone of the sentence you mean do not?


Yes, I mean you do need to meet the broker.

I am not sure to be honest, he did ask about credit history and took it at face value when I told him we had no past credit issues (which is true). He mentioned that if DIP had been issued by Halifax we had passed the relevant credit checks. . . this worried me as I understood Halifax only did an initial "soft" check?

Have you checked your credit file yourself?

Do you know there is nothing registered on your file that you are not aware of?

junglejame911

amnblog wrote: »

Have you checked your credit file yourself?

Do you know there is nothing registered on your file that you are not aware of?

I have checked both Exifax and Experian for myself and my wife and we have no issues.

I am still confused by your previous message - why do you say it is necessary to meet with a broker to ensure they are professional and legitimate?

amnblog

My intention was to say the opposite. You do not have to meet a broker to receive a sound, professional service.

Baby_Angel

We did not meet our broker who was recommended to us by one of the Estate agents we spoke to. We simply missed her when she was in the city where we lived, so it wasn't intentional. However I had spoken to her a couple of times before we actually asked her service for the house we purchased. She was really very pro active in everything she did and she did not charge us any fees. She did say though that she will be eventually paid by the lender with whom we chose to proceed.

She is still in contact!