Mortgages through Topcashback / Quidco

ChopperST

Mortgage is due for renewal. Has anyone used any of the cashback brokers through TCB or Quidco? Struggling to find any reviews on peoples experiences.

jim1999

I chose my broker based on TCB, and had a fantastic experience.

Having said that, it was a small operation where they do everything personally - which suits me. The same broker tends to give me a call at renewal time and he'll do my remortgage. It isn't a big corporation in the way that say L&C are.

To my mind there's no reason why not. They make a good wadge of commission for selling the mortgage, and since I don't really need much in the way of advice it feels fair to me that we share that commission.

Of course though, the risk is that you get a big firm that's playing a numbers game and the customer experience is poor. For instance, applying for mortgages that you're never going to get and wasting a heck of a lot of time. Or they aren't whole of market etc, in which case you might end up paying more on the mortgage than another broker would have found.

ChopperST

jim1999 wrote: »

I chose my broker based on TCB, and had a fantastic experience.

Having said that, it was a small operation where they do everything personally - which suits me. The same broker tends to give me a call at renewal time and he'll do my remortgage. It isn't a big corporation in the way that say L&C are.

To my mind there's no reason why not. They make a good wadge of commission for selling the mortgage, and since I don't really need much in the way of advice it feels fair to me that we share that commission.

Of course though, the risk is that you get a big firm that's playing a numbers game and the customer experience is poor. For instance, applying for mortgages that you're never going to get and wasting a heck of a lot of time. Or they aren't whole of market etc, in which case you might end up paying more on the mortgage than another broker would have found.

Thanks. Not a fringe case as 50% LTV and I've already bench marked against my current lender and moneysupermarket etc. Just wondered how good they are at actually honouring the promised rates of cashback. Happy to do the leg work myself but free money is free money.

Which company did you use and did you get the cashback? Thanks.

jim1999

ChopperST wrote: »

Thanks. Not a fringe case as 50% LTV and I've already bench marked against my current lender and moneysupermarket etc. Just wondered how good they are at actually honouring the promised rates of cashback. Happy to do the leg work myself but free money is free money.

Which company did you use and did you get the cashback? Thanks.

The firm I used is no longer advertising cashback publicly so I assume that they're only offering to existing clients for the moment.

Nonetheless, they say on their website that they're regulated by the FCA and that I have the right to complain and escalate to the FOS. I can't recall whether all brokers have to be FCA regulated (I would assume so), but if the firm you pick say that as well, then I think they'd be taking a massive risk by not paying it. And once you'd gone to the FOS I think you'd get your money.

[Deleted User]

Thing to be aware of is whether the cashback "tracks" or not.

If the cashback site say it didn't track, then there's nothing you can do. If their advertising network are saying the sale went to another method and/or just simply aren't recognising the fact you went via a cashback site, then you won't get your cashback.

FOS etc. won't help, since it's the cashback site (TCB/Quidco etc.) who have let you down, not the broker. The broker firm will say it's a matter for their marketing/advertising networks and that the terms of your sale didn't include for any cashback etc.

I'm currently going through Trussle via TCB, it's tracked at zero and I've not even reserved a house yet, so so far so good! (Uplift is usually after validation)

I'd go with a fee-free broker, via one of those two sites, and see it as a bonus if it does come in.

In terms of the actual advice - the broker will be FCA regulated and still should be giving the best possible advice either way so I don't think that should really be an issue unless you end up with a real lemon (as in every industry, some individuals are poor!) - but you say you've benchmarked so (given the requirement for brokers to document why they've not picked the cheapest) I think it should be an easy query for you when you say "I found X, why have we not gone there".

If you still had concerns, you could always pull out at that point prior to the app being submitted - but given how bad it would look, I doubt it would come to that and you'd receive a robust rationale!