London & Country gave me very poor advice

brian37

After seeing London & Country mentioned on this website I contacted them to help me choose a mortgage - I had very specific requirements (no early repayment fee etc). They advised me to take a mortgage from a building society with an APR of 6.5%. I consulted a number of lenders directly, with the same requirements, all of them bettered this deal - and two of them offered APRs of 5.2%.

If I had trusted London & Country to do what they said they would do and search thousands of mortgages and find me the most competitive deal it would have cost me thousands of pounds

I am still waiting for a response from London & Country as to why they advised me so badly. London and County are associated with the mortgage guide published on this site - but from my experience you would do well to avoid is broker if you are looking for a good deal.

SimplyAUser

:mad: Me too.

I contacted London & Country sometime ago to get a quote and I was offered some of the worst mortgages in the market.

The best they could find me was one from "Halifax fixed for 5 year at 5.39% changing to SVR after that".. tie-ins for 5 year.

Chase De Veer was useless but they offered better deals than L&C.

Charcolonline was good but they were charging money for advice.

Now I have finally managed my to mortagage through YourMove.co.uk (just to add salt to injury... It is from Halifax. 4.29% fixed for 2 years and then changing to SVR).

Contacted L&C again after finding this deal and the advisor has thanked me for letting him know (WHAT !!!! just thanks ... can't you atleast match that deal :mad: ).

Murray

In fact they didnt come up with any figures at all, just told me to call back when we want to remortgage in a few years!! I had given them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that it was becuase we had quite specific requirements...maybe not

Sorted now though!!

dunstonh

Some lenders have deals which are not available to brokers and vice versa. The mortgage advisors will advise on what information you give them and what is available to them. Different mortgage advisors will have different deals as well. The larger ones or those attached to larger networks will often negotiate terms which are non standard.

If it was just a quick telephone enquiry, the full research may not have been done and that deal quoted as a possibility. After a mortgage factfind would have been completed, full research would be done and a better deal may have been located.

Contacted L&C again after finding this deal and the advisor has thanked me for letting him know (WHAT !!!! just thanks ... can't you atleast match that deal :mad: ).

It doesn't work like that. If they cannot get that deal from that lender, they cannot offer it. With some other financial services products its possible but not mortgages.

---

The fact you found something cheaper does not make it bad advice at all. The advice was good and the product correct. You just found another provider that could do it cheaper.

If there was something at fault, then fair enough but its unfair to accuse them of bad advice when there hasnt been any bad advice.

KTF

I got my first mortgage through http://www.now-mortgages.com/ and had no problems with any of their advice. It might be wort contacting them to see what deals they come up with.

SimplyAUser

dunstonh. I do not disagree with your comments.

But I just want to let other moneysavers know that do not trust L&C just because it has been recommended in this website.

Even the small brokers can find some cutting edge deals. Always check the loal brokers.

The reason why I am so p**sed off is because I was the one who was researching the market and not them. I found some deals that were lower than what L&C originally found for me. L&C told me that they were able to match those deals (That proves that the search was not thoroughly done).

It was a poor advice. After me getting back to them they could offer the same deals...

TheManWithNoName_3

L&C claim , in their Guides and Articles to cover all lenders regardless to whether they earn commission or not !

MarkyMarkD

Dunston, I normally agree with you, but I'm not sure that I do here. L&C are a very large mortgage broker and should be able to come very close to the best deals on the market. There are very few direct only deals available, and they aren't hugely cheaper than the best of the rest.

But the OP was offered a completely rubbish deal by L&C compared to stonkingly good value deals from other lenders.

Unless the OP didn't explain his/her situation properly to L&C, it does sound like they have been poorly advised. That said, I can see that some individuals would be more accepting of an offer from a lender they contact direct, than they would when going through a full Q&A session with a broker - i.e. "do you need it to be flexible" means different things to different people. But then it is the broker's job to make sure the client understands what they are being asked and the implication of the answers they are providing.

dunstonh

We dont know how the discussion went as you say. Was it a quick enquiry on the phone with no mortgage sourcing software used but a guess at a lender that is known to meet those terms or was it a factfinded enquiry, in which case, you would expect more in depth research.

I can imagine they get lots of phone calls and many time wasters and maybe they do not fully research each and every call fully. Maybe safe examples are given? Who knows? I know that if I get phone calls on business i will not give a fully researched response but an example perhaps of something that may work subject to full information and research.

I am just surprised at the responses about a company that I believed was well regarded and sure that there has to be a bit of miscommunication here that has led to the differences. Im just keeping an open mind at this stage and putting forward possible reasons that may apply.

cloud_dog

Perhaps it was a bad egg at L&C. I know a work collegue who has recently been provided with the facts and figures of the Halifax 4.29%, 2 yr deal. Having said that when I went through them for a quote (looking for a BRT) I specifically stated that I was not interested in normal 'discounted' mortgages but the guy kept trying to push one of A&L discounted mortgage.

cloud_dog

Fairdo_2

brian37 wrote:

... They advised me to take a mortgage from a building society with an APR of 6.5%. I consulted a number of lenders directly, with the same requirements, all of them bettered this deal - and two of them offered APRs of 5.2%....

Just a small note, but you have mentioned APR's as the rate for comparison, although in your discussions with them, you may have asked for a much shorter term rate, which may have been the best advice around, based on what you told them you wanted.

Not doubting you, but want to ensure you did not mistake the differences between headline rate and the APR which takes account of costs of entry, exit and assumed standard variable rate throughout the remainder of the term.

As I am a broker, there is no milage in me defending L&C, but I do not want to see unfair criticism.