Use broker to borrow more (£15k) for home improvements or go direct? (Nationwide)

Noctu

Hi all,
Just wondering if I should bother going to a broker to arrange to borrow another £15k on my current Nationwide mortgage (to fund a conservatory), or just go direct?

If consensus is to go direct, would you suggest dealing with them over the phone or going into branch? Any pros/cons?

Many thanks! :j

David_White

Is your income straight forward?

Are your circumstances unusual?

Do you have any credit issues?

Whether you could benefit from a broker or not is very much down to what your situation looks like.

Noctu

Fairly straightforward - I'm on a fixed term contract but within NW's time scale policy. No other unusual circs.

Only issue is that we were declined this at DiP stage in July. I was a bit silly and opened three current accounts in one month (a week or two before we applied) to benefit from £ incentives to switch, not thinking about the impact it'd have on my credit score! So I had 3 hard searches on my file that month which I'm guessing led to the issue - no other issues re affordability and no adverse credit etc etc. That's the only thing I'm slightly bothered about. We were planning to apply in March ish and hoping that this will be long enough for this to not be an issue...

Would appreciate any advice

Thrugelmir

Noctu wrote: »

Only issue is that we were declined this at DiP stage in July.

Declined for a home improvement loan?

Any unsecured debt owing may influence the decision. Adverse credit issue isn't the only issue that underwriters will consider. .

Noctu

Yeah. :-/
There literally isn't anything else - apart from the silly mistake of several hard searches the week or two prior to application, there's nothing. We've never missed payments - have checked all credit files...
No other debt apart from the existing mortgage and my student loan.
Both on the electoral roll.
They were happy to lend us £212k in Sept last year so the hard searches are all I can think of that's scuppered it. Like I said we're within affordability and the income is fine. Age fine. House type fine. *shrug*... They said it was the credit check that we failed so that's all it can be...?!