Do brokers on comparison sites have a duty not to lie?

Jonathan_Powell

Whilst going through a remortgage, I first started off with my then current lender (TSB) to avoid the fee and the paperwork. The best deal they could give me wasn't great so I started going through the comparison websites. Went on MoneySuperMarket and it was showing me very attractive rates. Curiously, one of the rates was for TSB and significantly better than anything I saw on their website (at that LTV) or was offered. I checked the LTV I put in, it was correct and the same price came up again. I called the broker and said I would love to go for this rate but questioned why it wasn't something TSB offered me directly and was told they have exclusive offers with some lenders etc. Never thought much of it and proceeded with the application. I started to question their legitimacy when they wanted me to state my house value was much more than it was. My house is valued around £300,000 and they were pushing for £330,000. After some back and forth, they reassured me that the valuation won't be an issue and I ended up going forth with an application with an even cheaper lender than TSB. Long story short, a surveyor was actually sent round to check the house (and not a "google" check which they said would happen) and the house got valued at £300,000 so I was not eligible for that mortgage. The whole thing fell through and I ended up using MSE and just doing it myself.

So, what's happening on the MSM website is that they are displaying prices that customers simply won't be eligible for based on the LTV but you end up going down that route because you are seeing better prices when you initially see the prices.

kingstreet

If you are going back to your existing lender, you look for customer retention products as you are NOT remortgaging. A remortgage is a new mortgage with a new lender to repay the current one. A mortgage is a deed which ties the security property to the loan and in the former case it doesn't change and in the latter it does. That is why the latter is a remortgage.

[Deleted User]

What's the question here?

Yes, certain brokers get certain exclusive deals with certain lenders.  Not wholly uncommon to have 3 or 4 brokers have access to different deals from the same lender 

The idea of chancing your luck at a higher valuation can work sometimes so its not something to discount.  Some lenders at certain ltvs pretty much always do automated valuations and use either the Halifax or nationwide House price index.  The Halifax one in particular can throw out some ridiculous high automated vals which give better rates.   
Unless time is of the essence, its sometimes worth a crack to see if can sneak in to better ltv.

It's certainly not worth the extra work to rekey an entire case to go for the higher valuation when there is no chance in hell of it happening. 

All this might be completely irrelevant but I don't really know what your question is.

LRmortgage

As Kingstreet says, if you are already with TSB you should be looking at their product transfer / customer retention rates and not their remortgage rates. 

Whats_your_forte

GIGO I'm afraid. The search function isn't built for new and existing customer. Also, these sites do generate deals that you really wouldn't take up but are there for clickbait purposes ie really low rates with stupid set-up fees which makes them poor advice