I can only get a product with a fee

RelievedSheff

What is your salary, how much deposit are you putting down and what is the value of the property?

Something somewhere is tight if you are getting refusals.

london21

Worth checking as I was able to secure a 2 years fix 65% LTV with no product fee at 5.59%. With product fee of £995 would have been 5.35% but compared the figures and the advisor also confirmed the option without product fee works out cheaper.

The rate were going down earlier but now again gone up slightly think because BOE meeting on Thursday 2nd November.

I use this to check and compare. 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/?journeyType=first-time-buyer&propertyValue=120000&mortgageAmount=90000&depositAmount=30000&term=25&repaymentMethod=Repayment&sortBy=MonthlyRepaymentAmount&pageNumber=1&addFeeToBalance=false&productNoFee=false&noEarlyRepaymentCharge=false

housebuyer143

As it has been stated, banks have strict affordability criteria they need to follow, and then they have to stress the payments as well. 
Many would lend say 4x your salary (without any deductions for committed outgoings) even if you can show you could afford 7x your salary. It's all about risk. A product with a fee can be cheaper if you have a larger loan and they can also stress you on less as the rate is less. 
If your credit file is fine then you are trying to borrow at the absolute maximum that you can and that will firstly limit who you can go with and secondly the products you can have. 

You went with a broker and now refuse to trust that he has found you the most appropriate deal.

If you won't share your salary, loan amount etc then go one can explain where the problem is. It's definitely a problem with you though or every lender would be available to you

ACG

Dannydee333 said:

ACG said:

The £1500 isnt an add on... They are not selling you anything for that £1500, it is just part of the cost of the mortgage. 

It is all to do with how the product has been designed, by charging a £1,500 fee the interest rate is lower. A lot of people get turned off by higher interest rates, so a rate with a fee can be a way of overcoming that mental barrier. But in addition to that, if the product is a 5 year fixed rate the lender has the option of basing affordability on the rate payable rather than their stress testing rate. 

A lower rate with a fee can also help to overcome affordability issues. Which in your case appears to be an issue. 

Why can a large proportion of products be offered without a fee? Who pays for that "cost of the mortgage"? The rate difference is nothing to get excited over but it doesn't matter to me because I don't want a fee product.

As I said, it is how products are priced. Some are done with fees and some are done without - most lenders usually offer both options. If this is the case with your lender and you still only have the choice with the fee, it is clearly an affordability problem. If your chosen lender only has the one option then it could be other issues. We live in a world where lenders have the ability to offer both and customers (in most cases) have the option. 

A lower rate with a fee can also help to overcome affordability issues.

If they have concerns about someone's 'affordability' then in what world does it make sense to expect them to be able to 'afford' a significant additional fee upfront?

You said it yourself, you can add the fee to the mortgage. There is no expectation to pay it upfront, however even if there were a one off fee is not a financial commitment. It is the mortgage that has the monthly commitment, by paying the fee it lowers that commitment. 

I genuinely think mortgage products are too complex and could do with some cleaning up and simplifying.

Mortgages can be complicated. But what you are describing as being complicated is not really. For most people they have the choice of do you want a lower interest rate with a product that comes with a fee or a higher interest rate and no fee. There is a figure where it works out cheaper to do one over the other but that figure changes depending on the rates, the fees, how long the tie in is for and how long the mortgage as a whole is for. THAT is where it starts to get complicated. If you think choosing a product with or without a fee is complicated look at balance transfers on credit cards, there is no advice process for those but it is the same principle. 

I find it funny that you want to clean up the market and simplify it, yet you are not happy due to the lack of options. 

I personally don't have any affordability issues. I have at least a spare 500 quid a month after everything else is paid. So it seems a lot of lenders' criteria are a little too tight.

The problem is that mortgage lenders have to stress test the mortgage. On anything less than a 5 year fix, that has to be on a rate of maybe 8-10% in the current climate. On a 5 year fix or longer, the lender has the choice to do it on the rate payable. They may also be using ONS figure for your expenditure, that is an average. Some people will obviously be above and some below. It seems like you are below. 


You sound quite upset about your lack of options. Without knowing more it is difficult to really get into that and see if there are better options or not. I will work on the assumption the broker has done a decent job. The choice at this point is yours, accept it, reject it or get a second opinion. 

kingstreet

Which lender and what product?

RedFraggle

Are you still  self employed working for a US company and being paid via TransferWise?

kingstreet

This might be relevant;-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6479844/broker-tells-me-i-can-only-use-one-lender/p2

ACG

kingstreet said:

Which lender and what product?

My guess is it is a coloured stone. 

I love it when we get half a story.