Battle of the Brokers

WrenTheExplorer

I'd like to cover off what my experience has been with two different mortgage brokers.
First mortgage broker: Which?
Contacted them, filled out a couple of forms, and felt that it was a good time to go house hunting. Found our dream home after viewing 13 properties.

Then. Drama.
My credit score had been 'Fair' which I felt was accurate, I didn't used to be good with money, but I've been better over the past 10 years. Never had any CCJs or defaults or anything, just a few late payments.
I check my credit score again, and it's halved overnight. Why? A default had just been applied to my credit score. :mad:
The story goes: I had bought a couple of jumpers on Bon Prix. I attempted to set up a direct debit. I was under the impression that this had been set up on their website. Therefore, I made no other payments. I received no letters in the post suggesting I owed them money. 6 months later, (June 2018) I receive a letter from Lowells, telling me I owed money. I immediately called them up, figured out what had happened, and paid them over the phone. I assumed that that meant that everything was fine, but in September, they applied a default to my account.
I'm now in a complaints process with Lowell to challenge the application of a default against me. Their response time is 8 weeks, and then it could take 6months+ to actually have it removed.
I tell the Which? mortgage advice broker what has happened.
Simultaneously, the estate agents recommends an alternative mortgage broker, MAB. So we email him. He instantly sets up a meeting, at our flat, to start off the application process. He wants to work around our schedule, so can be here at 8pm.
Which? woman comes back to us, telling us that all the banks she had lined up would now decline us, and that she would need to try out an adverse credit mortgage instead.
MAB broker comes round, tells me not to panic, I've paid it off, it was only for £116, everything should be fine.
Which? broker says Aldermore says no, can we contact husbands parents to borrow money:mad:
MAB broker tells us that just the other day he got one of his clients a mortgage with Barclays, and the situation I was in was not as bad as theirs.

It continues, with extremely opposite levels of service from the two.
My experience with the Which? broker meant that for the past few months (it's taken a while to get a decision from Barclays) I have spent almost every day feeling like I want to be swallowed up by the ground beneath me.
My MAB broker has been over to our flat twice, to talk through paperwork, has been on call when I've been freaking out, and in general, has been trying to lift me back up out of this slump. Needless to say, the good news yesterday that our mortgage has been approved (we received our AIP last week, valuation was on Monday this week, Offer confirmed yesterday) has been the light at the end of the tunnel we needed. He was almost as excited as I was at giving me the news!
I dread to think how much we would have ended up paying had we gone with our first mortgage broker.

ACG

This is one of the reasons why on here I say speak to a local broker.
Which/L&C etc are all call centre based on a wage - they want the easy cases.

A good local broker - usually self employed - has more reason to get your mortgage through. They may not have a guaranteed wage each month.

Also typically people working the larger firms such as corporate estate agents or call centres are usually early in their careers, limited experience and not aware of how to get the most from lenders systems or where they can push to get a case through.

Good to hear it is all sorted, congrats!

~shoozy~

Agree 100% don't just go with the first one you speak to.

The first broker I spoke to was terrible, they accused my accountant of fraud (which isn't true!) and also said I'd need a minimum of 15% deposit before any lender would even look at my application.

L&C were looking for information that my accountant held, and were on the phone numerous times a day looking for me to progress, even telling me to just make something up, so that the AIP could be obtained.

Although my broker isn't local, they very much cater to my needs (mix of PAYE income and LTD company income over the past few years) and is worth every penny I've paid!

dunstonh

Factory line services using low skilled staff that pass admin off to even lower skilled unqualified staff is not a great way to gives quality service. Its cheap but these services are looking to provide that factory line service to people that dont really care.

If you want better quality then use a local broker.

csgohan4

surprised about ? Which, they were on my shortlist for a mortgage broker before I chose a broker from here instead

FirstTimer4Me

I'd like to find a local broker, is there a such a list for registered brokers, or am I reliant on Google / Yell?

amnblog

A good option is to check a Feedback site like Trustpilot

dunstonh

Google is a good option. Yell is old hat and not many brokers will use it.

ACG

I would stick with google also personally. We are on trustpilot but we will never get near the top as we do not do as much business as the firms at the top.

csgohan4

I hate trustpilot, got a negative review taken off, really annoying. So you wonder what else they take off there?

FirstTimer4Me

Thank you all, Google > unbiased website has popped up some suggestions.