Kensington - Advice please.

trickytrolleys

Hi, a friend of mine is going through a broker for a first time mortgage and had been told it will be offered by a company call Kensington Mortgage - we did a quick google search and we are getting very conflicting reports - has anybody used these or have any experience of them that could help please? Obviously she doesnt want to go with a dodgy company for obvious reasons!!

Many thanks

saver_sam

It depends what you mean by dodgy company. They lend to the lower end of the market i.e. sub prime and therefore are swifter to take enforcement action should the 'customer' be dodgy i.e. not pay. Therefore the interest rates are higher than other lenders to account for the higher risks they take.

herbiesjp

Without knowing the particular circumstances it is difficult to comment - however they are not normally your "best buy " material

draconian_2

They charge very high interest rates, I was offered a mortgage from them fixed for two years at 6.84%. I went with Amber who offered me a discounted rate of 5.07% (now 4.90 after rate reduction) for 3 years.
There are lots of clauses - I am already looking fwd to remortgaging in 3 years when I will have no debt outside my mort and he mort will be reducedd by £50k in that time as well.
I hope a mainstream bank will then take me on.

Its frustrating!

D

dunstonh

Got to be careful on what you call a company with no grounds for doing so.

As has been said already, they are not the sort of lender you would use if you have a clean application (i.e. no CCJs, debts etc). If you cannot get a lender from the "usual" places, then this is the sort of lender that will lend money but on more expensive terms due to the increased risk they are taking.

Ironically, this means they tend to focus on "dodgy" consumers rather than Mr & Mrs Average. Most lenders focusing on the high risk end of the market are pretty quick to enforce non-payment.

LouLouHelen

There's normally a reason that the person looking for a mortgage has been suggested Kensington - normally because they wouldn't be offered a mortgage by your well known lender on the high street. This might be because of current or previous credit problems i.e. County Court Judgements for non payments, bankruptcy or something like that. Get your friend to check their Experian credit history on https://www.experian.co.uk and this might shed some light on it. If in doubt get a second option from another Mortgage adviser.

Hope this helps.

whiteflag_3

LouLouHelen wrote:

There's normally a reason that the person looking for a mortgage has been suggested Kensington - normally because they wouldn't be offered a mortgage by your well known lender on the high street. This might be because of current or previous credit problems i.e. County Court Judgements for non payments, bankruptcy or something like that. Get your friend to check their Experian credit history on https://www.experian.co.uk and this might shed some light on it. If in doubt get a second option from another Mortgage adviser.

Hope this helps.

I agree totally. Get a second opinion . I read somewhere ( cant remember where) that the FSA have found some brokers have recommended sub-prime mortgages when a standard deals were available, just to get the higher fees!

LouLouHelen

2nd opinions all the way!!!!!!!!!! The adviser you are dealing with will be cool with you just checking out your options if they are offering you the best deal because they will klnow you will come back to them in the end!