Word of warning about AWD mortgage brokers

ado

AWD Home Finance uses a panel of lenders and is tied to L&G for life cover and D&D Homecare for ASUR policies. It used to be called Carrington Carr but was bought by AWD in 2002 or 2003. It charges a 1.95% fee which cover further advice for the whole lifetime of the mortgage. Recently though they have started to charge an additional 0.75% every time they re mortgage a client. Mortgage balances never reduce following a visit by an AWD HF consultant. The fee is added to the mortgage balance along with at least £800 for solicitors, almost invariable a single premium ASUR is sold and is therefore added to the mortgage, and if doing any debt consol a small % will be added to take into account any errors in the clients estimates of how much they owe.

Many of their mortgage sales staff earn in excess of £100,000 pa and because of the way they are targeted and paid many of their telemarketing staff earn £30k plus and in one case as much as £70k. Mortgage sales staff are taught how to discredit previous mortgage deals, brokers and companies and how to sell a new mortgage and protection package. The telemarketers are given free reign to be pushy on the phone and always say that AWD can reduce the amount of overall monthly payments. They however do not cold call and genuinely use phone numbers of people who have opted in to some sort of marketing. You might not have given AWD permission to call but at some point you would have given a marketing company permission to sell you data on.

AWD also run a very large compliance department which used to double check all demands and needs and recommendation letters and now produces these reports. They have a large number of staff doing this in order to make sure that their advice will pass muster if anyone complains.

Personally I used to find the advice given was ethical and that the compliance department did reign in some of the more wayward mortgage consultants and that they stopped sales going ahead if they could not be justified. Compliance were never happy if a consultant recommended consolidating a debt with less than one year to run unless there was a very good reason for it. The same goes for early redemption penalties, however mortgage consultants are continously sent out on fact finds to people in these circumstances and are expected to find a way to sell the package to them.

Overall though IMHO AWD are their to make money for their owners and to pay their sales staff very well. Single premium ASUR policies were popular as the commission got paid to AWD in a lump sum and once in place could not be cancelled meaning that commission could not be lost. A lot of people use AWD and by and large have been happy with the service however I do not now regard what they offer as value for money. Personally I think anyone with a bit of intelligence can either find a no fees broker to help them or could find their own mortgage on the web without paying £2995 for the privilege.

koexelek

ado wrote: »

It charges a 1.95% fee which cover further advice for the whole lifetime of the mortgage. Recently though they have started to charge an additional 0.75% every time they re mortgage a client.

Sounds a bargain... how to I sign up to them ? :rolleyes:

Sagpack

jaz1 wrote: »

hi
i used to work for awd home finance formally carrington carr as a telemarketer and also a consultant so i have really seen the workings of this company and its not good. I can tell you that this company is NOT independent and have a preferred panel of about 8 lenders may be 10 max. This company is very target orientated and they would do whatever it took to take a clients money and sell them all sorts of protection pols notably ASU BLOCK policy which could be anything from £3500 to £15000 and this only gave you protection for upto a max of 6 years. So you would have to levy this big sum on your mortgage and pay interest on it but only be protected max 6 yrs. If we did not sell this block policy on everycase there was a big meeting in the office the next day. You were named and shamed for not selling this and your cut was 10% of the premium, i have seen consultants lose their jobs over not selling enough of it. Yet nobody working for the company would themselves ever take out such a policy. This company were renowed for being just "ruthless" we were taught to slater everyones current mortgage in order to sell our mortgage with a block policy. We had weekly league tables and stupid incentives for reaching target. The senior managers were over weight as they were fed very well from the work the consultants.. Top management had no regard for their consultants let alone their clients. This is NOT a company to put your mortgage through. Buyer Beware!!!!
Goto an Independent company who will not sell block ASU but be prepared to pay a fee, it so will be worth it.
Since leaving the company all my sales are done with utmost good faith and integrity which is more than i can say for this company take their advise and do it yourselves!!!!!

So quite clearly you were/are a bitter and twisted failure then!

Phil777

Goonerak wrote: »

Just thought I'd let you what I was advised to do by AWD:
1) Pay £2500 to come out of a 5.89% fixed rate mortgage (1 year into a 2 year deal)
2) Transfer to a tracker rate mortgage at 6.89%
3) Borrow £10,000 against the new mortgage to pay off a fixed rate loan that has 3.5 years to run.
4) Borrow £2500 against the new mortgage to pay off the remainder of a fixed rate car finance deal that has 1 year to run.

Now, I'm no financial expert but even I can see that paying interest on interest is mad. And paying a lump of money to come out of a mortgage to pay at a higher rate?

6.89% tracker in October, what % would that be now? And what do you think is going to happen to interest rates going forward? What if you lumped all the debt together and then made over payments to the mortgage with the savings that you made? I think the bit where you said "I'm no financial expert" means that listening to one may have actually helped you.

HelpWhereIcan

Phil777 wrote: »

6.89% tracker in October, what % would that be now?

So the AWD adviser, in your expert opinion, obviously discussed interest rate risk with this person? How much of that 1.5% drop in the base rate (or possible 2% depending when in October the deal was taken) has been more than eaten up by the £2500 early repayment charge they have paid?

What effect does compunding have on that £2500?

What size mortgage does the customer need to have to be better off after the latest drops? Does that change when you consider the effect of compounding?

Phil777 wrote: »

And what do you think is going to happen to interest rates going forward?

Let's assume they drop, how much will they have to drop by to make sure that the client is better off by the £2500 over the remaining 1 year of their old deal? Are you saying the the AWD adviser knew rates would come down by 2% plus in such as short space of time and made their calculations accordingly? If so it seems strange that the customer does not remember this startling prediction.

Just cos rates dropped, does not mean the advice was good.

How do their new lender's svr and retention policies compare to the old ones? (Especially important considering the current state of the mortgage and property markets)

Phil777 wrote: »

What if you lumped all the debt together and then made over payments to the mortgage with the savings that you made?

Was this discussed? from the tone of the OP I would say this was never mentioned as the OP would have mentioned this as being their plan.

Even if any savings are directed towards overpayments, how much interest has/will be saved?

Considering the customer's employment position and the current economy, is it wise to increase their secured borrowing especially as by doing so their debt resolution options reduce?

Is there enough equity to mean that they are likely to still have enough to remortgage when the new tracker deal ends? Considering the current property market outlook do they really want to be putting themselves in the position where they may not be able to secure a new deal due to lack of equity?

Do not forget the old chestnut of compunding. The difference between 3.5 years @ 9.9% and 25 years @ 6% may surprise you from the sounds of it.

Even if secured borrowing was the answer, was it considered whether they would have been better off with a secured loan for the remaining year of their mortgage to save the early repayment charges meaning they could remortgage the full amount when the original deal ends (or was the AWD salesman more interested in this sale now?).

Were debt management etc considered?

Phil777 wrote: »

I think the bit where you said "I'm no financial expert" means that listening to one may have actually helped you.

I think your single post may mean that you are an AWD employee about to be cast adrift by one of the least respected organisations in the industry. Good Luck getting someone to buy your lump of excrement business and staff list.

Enjoy your complete lack of skill as your response to the post indicates that you (and AWD?) are the only one to think that unsecured to secured consolidation is a good idea in the current market.

Is it not bad enough that everyone in the industry thinks your lot are a bunch of c***s? Did you really have to go and prove them all right?

See you on the dole queue.

Rick62

Yes, who are you Phil777?

luckyfool

Rick62 wrote: »

Yes, who are you Phil777?

Dr. Phil . . . only more clueless.

Phil777

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

So the AWD adviser, in your expert opinion, obviously discussed interest rate risk with this person?

I never said I was an expert. Just asked three simple questions.

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

How much of that 1.5% drop in the base rate (or possible 2% depending when in October the deal was taken) has been more than eaten up by the £2500 early repayment charge they have paid?

What effect does compunding have on that £2500?

What size mortgage does the customer need to have to be better off after the latest drops? Does that change when you consider the effect of compounding?



Let's assume they drop, how much will they have to drop by to make sure that the client is better off by the £2500 over the remaining 1 year of their old deal? Are you saying the the AWD adviser knew rates would come down by 2% plus in such as short space of time and made their calculations accordingly?

The point is that there are a few more bits of info needed to make a call on whether the advice provided was good or not.

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

Even if any savings are directed towards overpayments, how much interest has/will be saved?

Considering the customer's employment position and the current economy, is it wise to increase their secured borrowing especially as by doing so their debt resolution options reduce?

Is there enough equity to mean that they are likely to still have enough to remortgage when the new tracker deal ends? Considering the current property market outlook do they really want to be putting themselves in the position where they may not be able to secure a new deal due to lack of equity?

So what you are saying is that you would need more information on the situation before you can say whether the financial solution offered was any good.

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

Do not forget the old chestnut of compunding. The difference between 3.5 years @ 9.9% and 25 years @ 6% may surprise you from the sounds of it.

Have you assumed a mortgage term of 25 years here to start with? If so wouldn't the mortgage be paid off a lot sooner if the savings were used to clear capital off the mortgage? Again a simple question.

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

Even if secured borrowing was the answer, was it considered whether they would have been better off with a secured loan for the remaining year of their mortgage to save the early repayment charges meaning they could remortgage the full amount when the original deal ends (or was the AWD salesman more interested in this sale now?).

<devils advocate mode on> Who's to say whether they would have been able to remortgage when the deal came up for renewal. Again more information needed. <Devils advocate mode off>

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

Were debt management etc considered?

I don't know the answer to that

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

I think your single post may mean that you are an AWD employee about to be cast adrift by one of the least respected organisations in the industry. Good Luck getting someone to buy your lump of excrement business and staff list.

I think if you notice I've been lurking for a few months. I didn't realise AWD PLC was one of the least respected organisations in the business. I thought they were doing a great deal to help the provision of financial advice in developing countries, working with very high profile people. I understand Kofi Annan addressed them at their recent birthday party.

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

Enjoy your complete lack of skill as your response to the post indicates that you (and AWD?) are the only one to think that unsecured to secured consolidation is a good idea in the current market.

Is it not bad enough that everyone in the industry thinks your lot are a bunch of c***s? Did you really have to go and prove them all right?

See you on the dole queue.

I wasn't suggesting that the poster consolidated, merely asked a question. It wouldn't be very clever to attempt to offer advice on such a small amount of information, from what I do understand of the industry.

And finally reducing your post to personal insults doesn't really improve your credibility or put yourself across as a person with a very balanced view.

And no my points are not the view of AWD, I am not representing them. I merely get a bit tired of ill thought out posts and badly constructed arguments/insults.

still_maddog

I am coming to the end of a fixed rate with the Coventry BS and so picked 2 brokers at random from the internet - AWD and London and County. L and C simply called back and quoted me over the phone - I found better rates myself. AWD drove 100 miles and spent 3 hours going through my needs and returned 3 days later with their proposals. It sems too good to be true but I understand the logic. Essentially they have advised an offset tracker, lumped in a bankloan I have at a rate significantly higher than the re-mortgage rate - hence upping my mortgage, but reduced the term from 19 to 15 years and saved me £200 per month. Is the thread about "Beware AWD" simply sour grapes or should I take noptice of it. Interestingly, the chap told me that with the Insurance policies I had I did not need ASU. Please help - this is a serious request on a "sizable" mortgage.

Thanks

feisty1

Contact another adviser, one who is competey independent and whole of market to obtain a comparative quotation, then you will be better placed to make an informed decision.

It is interesting to read your total borrowing is going to increase but your existing insurance doesn't need adjusting. Most people have decreasing term insurance in place to match the mortgage, however it appears this is not for you.

What was the reason you didn't require ASU, do you have income protection that includes redundancy cover, or ?

As for questioning the purpose of the thread, you must either feel it has some credibility or you're doubting the advice of the adviser for you to have visited here, but it is good to see new "members"

One final question, what is the amount of your mortgage and how much is the Broker Fee being charged, if in any doubt refer to your Key Features Document Section 8. What fees must you pay?

Look forward to your reply