Is it worth using a broker when renewing my mortgage?

homeless9

June 2025 is when my term ends. This will be the first time I'll be renewing my mortgage after buying my house 5 years ago....

I have 65% equity in the house. I have the best credit rating possible.

I am currently with Santander and would like another 5 year term. I am not going to be doing anything until next year, but just for examples sake let's go with the idea that I am looking to renew now - from looking on their website I could get a mortgage rate of:

4.2% with £999 fee OR 4.37% with no fee.

This may be stupid, but I'd rather stay with Santander out of convenience as I bank with them...

Would a broker be able to haggle this rate with Santander down? - I don't know how brokers go about getting better rates - if they found a better rate elsewhere would they see if Santander would match it? Do they say things like 'my client has X amount of equity in the house and has an unblemished credit history, so can you do us a better deal'....

or do they just simply have a comparison site loaded up and just select the lowest one and just do the admin needed to set it up.

BarelySentientAI

Brokers don't haggle rates. 

Neither do they just do simple admin from a comparison site.

Some lenders offer rates only accessible through a broker.  Brokers can also assess your circumstances and work out which lenders are most likely to accept you or agree the right loan amount (bad credit records, close affordability etc)

If you've already decided that you're just going for a retention product at Santander, then unless they are one that has intermediary-only deals (I don't know if they are or not) then you probably don't need a broker.

And no, lenders don't 'price match' either.

ACG

If you want to stick with Santander you will just have to accept whatever they have available at the time. You can do this yourself or your broker might be in touch about doing it on your behalf. 

As an example, with our customers we contact them. If they want to switch products with their current lender we do not charge any fees, we just have a catch up call and get a few bits and give them the options. We do not charge for that as there is only maybe 1-2 hours work involved so the commission is usually enough. 

We will also research the market and have a look at what else is out there. Would you still want to stay with Santander if you could get the same deal but without the £999 fee for example? But if the customer wants to switch lenders, we would charge a smaller admin fee for that as there is more work involved. 

But there is no negotiatating on rates, lenders have what they have. Typically it is the same rates if you go direct or through a broker, although occasionally a broker might have something slightly better but we are talking small margins usually. 

RelievedSheff

If you are just doing a product switch with your current lender then you can very easily do that yourself.

Jemma01

I regret not speaking to a broker after learning they could have better rates than going direct.

DullGreyGuy

RelievedSheff said:

If you are just doing a product switch with your current lender then you can very easily do that yourself.

You can do it yourself but certainly in our case (NatWest) the broker has had a rate a couple of bps below what NW were offering me directly. Secondly on both occasions the broker has contacted me in the renewal window saying they've been notified NW are increasing the rates the next day so should lock in now... having spoken to a different broker on the same day they've confirmed it was true and it wasnt my broker pulling a fast one. If I hadn't had a broker I wouldn't have know and would have ended up paying more.