Broker vs comparison websites

bflare

Completely new to house buying & at 42 I have finally got a deposit together to get me on the ladder. A work colleague put me in contact with a broker who I spoke to last week & I was told I could borrow up to 166k with a 10% deposit over 27 years with a monthly cost of £720 for an approx house price of 184k. The broker also wanted a fee of around £400 on completion of any mortgage. Plugging these figures into a well-known comparison site the monthly cost is coming out quite a lot less & also I appear to be able to borrow a little more. I had a mortgage in principle from L&C stating I should be able to borrow 175k up to 198k which was more than the broker quoted.  

Are these comparison sites unreliable & just a way to entice you in like car insurance & then once they have your attention they change the original quote? 

I just need to know roughly what I am likely to be able to borrow & some kind of monthly cost but looking at the comparison site vs broker there doesn't seem to be many similarities. 

ACG

They are not there to try and entice you, but they generally work off income multiples. If you have a lot of commitments (loans, credit cards etc), they are likely to be less reliable. 

bflare

ACG said:

They are not there to try and entice you, but they generally work off income multiples. If you have a lot of commitments (loans, credit cards etc), they are likely to be less reliable. 

Thank you. I have zero credit but a dependent who I receive child benefit for which apparently i was told helps with affordability. 

ACG

Depending on the age of the child it may do. 

dunstonh

The less info you give, the less reliable the amount you can borrow will be.  That is irrespective of the distribution channel you are looking at.

L&C is not a comparison site.  It is an online broker doing the same as a local broker.  Although the online model tends to favour simple cases that are not pushing limits or have issues.  Whereas a localised broker can come into their own when you are pushing limits or have issues.

bflare

dunstonh said:

The less info you give, the less reliable the amount you can borrow will be.  That is irrespective of the distribution channel you are looking at.

L&C is not a comparison site.  It is an online broker doing the same as a local broker.  Although the online model tends to favour simple cases that are not pushing limits or have issues.  Whereas a localised broker can come into their own when you are pushing limits or have issues.

Thanks. Are L&C favorable? I would assume that mine is a quite simple case? I have 10% deposit, zero debts, no CCJ's. Credit rating in the high 600's. I have also put a request into Habito who should be emailing me today. 

dunstonh

bflare said:

dunstonh said:

The less info you give, the less reliable the amount you can borrow will be.  That is irrespective of the distribution channel you are looking at.

L&C is not a comparison site.  It is an online broker doing the same as a local broker.  Although the online model tends to favour simple cases that are not pushing limits or have issues.  Whereas a localised broker can come into their own when you are pushing limits or have issues.

Thanks. Are L&C favorable? I would assume that mine is a quite simple case? I have 10% deposit, zero debts, no CCJ's. Credit rating in the high 600's. I have also put a request into Habito who should be emailing me today. 

The credit score (high 600s) is meaningless. Lenders are not interested in any marketing score the credit agency uses.   There are plenty of top "score" people who haven't been able to get mortgages and low score people that have.

If you are looking to maximise borrowing then a localised broker is likely to give you a better outcome than an internet/direct one.