Using a high street lender

Mizenberg

Hi All,

I have seen an awful of advice given on these forums that using a good broker is the 'way to go' when trying to get a mortgage.

We, however, are going through the process with a high-street lender (Lloyds). All the advice on here makes me concerned that we should not be doing this now!

Has anybody else had any good experiences with lenders such as this? Starting to worry about now that something may go wrong with all the horror stories I have read! We initially chose this particular lender/MA due to a recommendation, but I guess it's different for everybody.

mrginge

No need to use a broker if you have a straightforward case and are happy doing a bit of legwork yourself imo.
Brokers may disagree lol.

Many of the queries on here are from people who have less than perfect scenarios, so in those cases you would expect a broker to be the sensible route.

ThePants999

Brokers can work magic. But not everyone needs magic to get a mortgage

JohanMath

No need to use a broker if you have a straightforward case and are happy doing a bit of legwork yourself imo.
Brokers may disagree lol.

kingstreet

Lloyds/HBoS products are pretty average at the moment, so you may find a better deal via a broker, but nothing to stop anyone going direct as long as they know what to expect in terms of the process and the lender's service levels.

If you know (or think you know) you will meet your lender's criteria a direct application should be fine, but will perhaps take longer.

Mizenberg

Thanks for the replies!

Our scenario is not entirely straightforward, but may be in comparison to some others I guess..

We are are selling/buying, and with the equity from our sale (about £65-70k), approx £20k is being taken out to pay off existing non-mortgage debts. This will leave us with approx £40k-45k for deposit on the house we are buying (£212k).

So for the purposes of the application we did last week, the debts effectively do not exist- this sound right? What I mean by that is that the Lloyds MA entered onto the application that they will not exist when the mortgage starts.

Our credit scores are ok, nothing bad on them just high balances, currently.

kingstreet

Some lenders ignore commitments which will be repaid on or before completion of the new mortgage, some don't.

Mizenberg

I am starting to wonder though if I should have taken a different approach. One of the smaller balances (approx £5k) has a very high monthly payment of £700 per month, whereas the other £15k or so only require minimum total minimum payment of £200 per month (for all 3 together).

Wondering if I should have just cleared the £5k debt, and had a 15k higher deposit..Would obviously mean a better LTV, but would also mean that we still have £15k of non-mortgage debt, but a smaller mortgage...hmmm...

I also guess it would mean alot more complications with the application itself, where so far it has been quite simple i.e "those will all be paid off at completion". The way we are doing it currently is much more simple and clean, but I am now starting to have doubts.

ThePants999

kingstreet wrote: »

a direct application ... will perhaps take longer.

Ain't that the truth. We did a direct application recently, and while it was all pretty smooth and quick once we got to the "application" point, I wasn't expecting the delay in getting there. I hadn't twigged that non-advised mortgages are basically unavailable now, so I had to start by waiting a fortnight for an appointment with a mortgage adviser from the bank, just to get "official" confirmation that my own analysis and choice of product was correct

Mizenberg

ThePants999 wrote: »

Ain't that the truth. We did a direct application recently, and while it was all pretty smooth and quick once we got to the "application" point, I wasn't expecting the delay in getting there. I hadn't twigged that non-advised mortgages are basically unavailable now, so I had to start by waiting a fortnight for an appointment with a mortgage adviser from the bank, just to get "official" confirmation that my own analysis and choice of product was correct

Cripes...we have already done the applicaiton (in branch, Sat 27/2), but are now awaiting the valuation which is happening this morning. Hopefully that will be ok, but I am also awaiting to hear as to whether the valuation on our sale property had any issues. So I really feel like I need to know the results of both before we can finalise the mortgage figures for our purchase.

Dang- it hadn't occurred to me that using a broker may have made alot of this less painful (the Lloyds MA is only part time, and diary seems to be full rather alot of the time...)