Leap Finance

greg2424

Hi All,

My wife and I are currently looking to remortgage. After running some comparisons, I went to two mortgage advisers both in the ball park of £4-500 in terms of their fees, but one couldn't really offer me what I considered to be a "great deal" and the other was clearly disinterested.

On a lazy Saturday, I was going through Money SuperMarket and did another comparison and clicked some kind of "Contact me" link and Leap Finance were straight onto me. A guy who really knew his stuff and after lengthy discussions scheduled a visit from one of their advisers.

They have been very guarded on their fees, but if they can get me access to deals in the region of 1.14%, then the high fees would be justified in a matter of months! The guy came over last night, again very knowledgeable but definitely pushing us into protection schemes and clearly had the talk and made us think about a few things.

Still no mention of what they actually charge and went off leaving a checklist of things we need and that he would get us a mortgage that meets our needs.

I guess I wanted to find out from anyone who has experience of using them just how expensive they are and if so, whether it was worth it and whether they actually DO have access to all these "deals" like they say they do.

I looked them up on review centre (.com) and they ranked 4.7/5 from 64 reviews which seems pretty good, but then I'm a suspicious person by nature and if something seems too good to be true.....Well, you know the rest!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Senior_Paper_Monitor

From their website ...

Your initial consultation is obligation free*. There will be a fee for mortgage advice. The actual fee will depend on your circumstances. The fee is up to 3% but a typical fee is 1.5% of the amount borrowed. The overall cost for comparison is 4.4% APR (11.11.2013) Leap Finance Limited, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Services Register No 541764.


At the meeting ('first point of contact', albeit we tend to treat the telephone contact as that - and issue documents by email) they are beholden to provide what used to be an 'Initial Disclosure Document - Keyfacts'. This requirement still exists but the document is no longer a 'Keyfacts publication and is (I think universally) labelled as 'Important Information about our Services' which should explain the range of fees and services applicable.

kingstreet

Before you make any commitment, ensure you have terms of business which set out what YOU will pay and ask for an illustration (KFI or ESIS - depending on lender) as this will also show broker and lender costs and fees.

amnblog

Sounds like unless you are borrowing £30,000, Leap Finance are about to get a result. This is presumably why our 'knowledgeable' friend is keeping one bit of key knowledge to himself.

greg2424

Thanks! I gave him permission to run a search on our behalf for a decision in principal, he told me that he would only run one application though. Will this have an adverse affect on my credit rating?

amnblog

It might have an adverse effect on your pocket is he considered you have engaged him to work for you!

In probably won't damage your credit file, but why let him run a score if you are not sure of the fees and therefore whether you want to work with him.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Have you had the Illustration (used to be a KFI) for the mortgage for which he is conducting the Decision in Principal ?

You should have (at least in our compliance book !) and this will detail both what they are charging (possibly 'a lot') and what they will earn in total (possibly 'a very lot') !!

greg2424

We haven't been given any paperwork, the only thing I signed was to state that we were fine for him to have one lender carry out a search so that an offer in principal could be arranged.

We are not under any obligation to take the offer, nor do we pay a penny if the mortgage does not go through for whatever reason.

I guess I was trying to work out how much more his fees would be versus how much of a saving they could make us on the rate of the mortgage. So if he charges £,1000 but gets a rate that undercuts other mortgage advisers by say .2%, would it not still be advantageous for us to use them?

amnblog

He is not doing to undercut other brokers on rate as all whole of market brokers have access to well over 95% of the market.