Feedback on new brokers in mortgage article

blueberrypie

luckyfool wrote: »

Its amazing how all these 1st time posters register on the MSE forums to post glowing reviews of Mortgage Monitor. A more cynical person than I might be suspicious.

Well I'll happily stand up and be counted as cynical and suspicious.

Personally I make a point of avoiding any company which dishonestly spams forums like this with posts claiming to be from satisfied customers, so I most certainly will never deal with Mortgage Monitor (and I very much hope that Martin doesn't recommend them, for the same reason).

debsinbrighton

Well, we started off using London & Country. They told us they could definitely get us a mortgage and told us to go ahead and make an offer on a property. We did, then called them back, only to be told that they couldn't get us a mortgage after all.

We then went to my bank and they told us that they would give us a mortgage. They gave me an AIP. I then rang a couple of mortgage brokers. Mortgage Monitor offered me the same deal as going direct with my bank, and we decided to go with them as they would do all of the paperwork for us.

They have been fairly good so far - not always as quick as I would like to return calls but then I am quite impatient! However we have just had our credit checks confirmed and the bank are going to do a valuation this week.

matchseller

HI!
I had to leave feedback because some people do have genuine good service stories to relate.

I completed my remortgage with the Woolwich using mortgage monitor on August 11th.(paid of old mortgage and all cards and loan so debt free apart from mortgage)
I had contacted L & C but they took over a weekto get back to me; by which time mortgage monitor had already got an agreement in principal. The Woolwich underwriters confirmed that if all my info was correct then remortgage would be fine.
The only hiccup was the 3 week delay waiting for my bank statements to come from Alliance and Leicester.
The formal offer was sent on the Friday ; Optima Legal contacted me on the Wednesday and the money went in the bank the following Wednesday the 11th.
The broker and his assistant kept me informed about the progress by phone and email and responded quickly.

I had contacted them as a last resort; as on our income we had struggled; but our credit record is clean (credit cards to the max and house on market for 15 months but never been late or missed a payment ever) thought there was no way out but to sell.

Just to let you know i am registered blind( not working) and my wife works 23 hours a week but we still got 4 times joint income from the Woolwich which i dont think we would have got by approaching them ourselves ( as we dont fit the standard criteria)so i for one am all for using a broker and when i next need one i'll use mortgage monitor again.
I do not have any connection whatsoever with the broker concerned.

mrsmaread

This is an excellent site the only one that worked for us Carmelita was excellent

peterross

Fix now or wait and see what happens to interest rates? Thoughts?

dunstonh

The advisor was very forceful in asserting that I absolutely MUST take out a fixed rate mortgage NOW before interest rates rise.

Its an opinion. There is some merit in the fact that fixed rate deals are likely to increase in the near future. However, the costs of coming out of a deal early will almost certainly offset the increase for just 4-6 months. Did he do a cost analysis that showed how much it will cost vs how much you could save?

PS: I realise that there are advisors from Mortgage Monitor posting on this forum, so I may need some help in deciding whether or not you are genuine. Perhaps Martin can help with this one?

The company is FSA authorised and therefore genuine. Hopefully, this is just a bad member of staff and I expect that mortgage monitor will pick up on your comments and deal with it.

Coming out of deals early to go into new deals is acceptable where justified. However, you would expect a cost analysis to be done and you to have been presented with the pros and cons. If the justification, costs and pros and cons have not been presented to you then its probably a mis-sale. In which case, you should make a formal complaint. Normally I would say go back to the adviser first as you dont want to complain if its just a misunderstanding that can be sorted with a discussion. However, given the poor attitude of the individual, then a complaint makes more sense.

peterross

Thanks for the advice

Stevemills_2

I obtained my Woolwich mortgage through Mortgage Monitor about 4 years ago.

It was not a complicated remortgage, but they still completed all thier activities on time and provided verbal guidance through the process.
"They did exactly what they said on the tin"

sunshinesadly

Mortgage Monitor

I have recently had a phone call with Mortgage Monitor and found them to be helpful and friendly and they explained everything in a straight forward way.

Based on the information I gave them they advised me to take a mortgage deal that they couldn't process (with a lender who doesn't deal with brokers) and when that became clear the Advisor was still happy to discuss mortgage related issues with me (rather than rushing to get me off the phone which is an experience I've had with other fee-free brokers when they work out they don't have a good enough product to sell me).

I would recommend giving Mortgage Monitor a call if you're looking for a mortgage and weighing up what they say with the opinion of other brokers and your own research.

sunshinesadly

And just to clarify....I am in no way connected with Mortgage Monitor. I am leaving feedback because in Martin Lewis's guide on mortgages (on this site) they are mentioned and feedback on using them requested. The link on that article comes to this thread. I had a positive experience of using Mortgage Monitor and decided to share it.