Is my mortgage lender public knowledge

Larry9999

Hi all,

I had my current mortgage arranged by a person at a building society who i beleve was an independant advisor and they arranged my mortgage with HSBC which i have had for nearly 5 years and it's coming to an end in March and so HSBC have emailed me to ask me to pick a new mortage rate which is currently about £60 a month more than i'm paying however i have recieved a few emails from the "mortgage advice bureau"  (@mab.org.uk) stating that they arranged for my mortgage originally and to contact them to discuss re-mortgaging but i'm a bit dubious about this as i've never heard of them. The only details they've given about me (apart from having my email address) is that my mortage is with HSBC and about to come to an end. Is this information something that is publicily accessible for it to be a sales email from a company that's never dealt with my previous mortgage ?

Thanks all

DE_612183

your mortgage details will be on the deeds to the property, but I'd be surprised if someone would pay for that on the off chance of getting a sale.

Are you sure you haven't given out your details for perhaps another finance application - say for a car - they might typically ask who your mortgage is with, or have you gone to any of the "compare sites" and filled in details there?

DullGreyGuy

The Title Register shows any charges on the property so would identify who a mortgage is with. It won't identify when any promotional period or such would end. 

Would be surprised if a building society had their own independent mortgage broker and so would more likely be a referral to an external party. 

CliveOfIndia

Is it possible that your original mortgage advisor worked for MAB?  It's not impossible that yes, he was independent inasmuch as he has no ties to a particular mortgage provider, and therefore should be free of bias.  But he could well work for MAB as an independent consultant.  Or even as an employee.

Or, as per the previous poster - if you've ever done a price comparison or entered your details on a website, those kind of things tend to get shared/sold around.

I wouldn't think it's anything to be overly concerned about, it just good old-fashioned marketing.  By all means ask MAB for a quote, see what they come up with - but also shop around elsewhere, as you would (should!) always do anyway.

dunstonh

. Is this information something that is publicily accessible for it to be a sales email from a company that's never dealt with my previous mortgage ?

MAB is a large network of advisers (something like 2000 of them).  So, its likely your old mortgage broker was linked to MAB and when they finished working, your details went into the general pool.

MAB wouldn't cold call.  They also wouldn't pay for land registry details to then filter them and then cold call.

MAB were in bed (and still are) with a number of building societies.