Mortgage Broker or not

When we bought last June we went through a broker and also spoke to the major banks/building societies. The broker had the best offer, beating all the banks/building societies and was transparent about all the options for early repayment, exit fees etc.

Broker was free as he received commission from the building society for the mortgage deal and we didn't have to sign up to any additional insurance.

All in all it was good for us, but I think it will depend on which broker you use. Obviously some will be good and probably plenty of bad ones.
 
Just go and see a broker, they're usually very open and will provide a lot of help along the way. It's not all about just selecting the best/cheapest deal...
 
NathanE said:
What LTV have you got to play with?

If it's decent (say 85% or less) then you should do some quotes with various banks first (HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays/Woolwich, Santander, ING etc etc etc) as these will be far better than anything a broker can offer you.

Brokers love their upfront setup fees, which at the moment tend to be at least £1000 often more. They also love pushing fixed rate products even if your financial position means a tracker would be more suited.
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not necessarily. i have used high street brokers a few times and they always beat the banks as they get better deals.
 
We went through a broker 2 years ago and will be doing the same come renewal in September.

Found us the cheapest quotes & filled out all paperwork which we just needed to sign which made life so easy!

Don't think I will ever not use one now. Didn't cost a penny, they outline all fees that are paid by the lender and show you what comission they make. Nothing to hide!
 
NathanE said:
What LTV have you got to play with?

If it's decent (say 85% or less) then you should do some quotes with various banks first (HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays/Woolwich, Santander, ING etc etc etc) as these will be far better than anything a broker can offer you.

Brokers love their upfront setup fees, which at the moment tend to be at least £1000 often more. They also love pushing fixed rate products even if your financial position means a tracker would be more suited.
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What a load of lobster!

I used a mortgage broker and she was excellent. Her fee to us was £95 and then obviously she then gets commission from the Mortgage Company.

She got us a great deal. I would recommend actually see what kind of rates they can get you.
 
I got a broker to have a look for me about 18 months ago. I also did some checking myself either direct or through the websites. Best deal I got was 2.19% over base for life with no penalty clauses on a 75% LTV. It's amazing the deals that suddenly fall before you if you have a half decent deposit.
I showed the deal to my broker and, to his credit, he said "go for it. I can't come anywhere near a deal like that".
Only downside was the upfront fees of about £1100 but there always has to be a catch.
 
bignev72 said:
What a load of lobster!

I used a mortgage broker and she was excellent. Her fee to us was £95 and then obviously she then gets commission from the Mortgage Company.

She got us a great deal. I would recommend actually see what kind of rates they can get you.
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As with most things, it's a case of YMMV... and sometimes it's a case of having blinkers on.

Brokers are better suited for people with less equity or weaker credit score etc.

I tried brokers in October last year and literally all the products they were offering started with a £1000 fee (not them, the lender). And that was with 68% LTV. I also observed they have a very strong tendency to push their fixed rate products (because they get better kick backs on them) and got a very sour taste from it all. They were woefully uncompetitive compared to going direct to HSBC or Nationwide, at the time. It isn't "lobster" at all. It's one persons true account and therefore their opinion.

I'm surprised by the reaction my post had. I guess people aren't interested in the opinion of someone that only recently went through a property purchase, mortgage process and completed last month. I would have thought my opinion was fairly up-to-date and relevant.


BDEE said:
LOL @ This.


I've never read such tripe in all my life.

They already said the broker was fee-free and most lenders offer the same rates via brokers as they do direct, some even offer better ones via mortgage clubs. (Exception being HSBC group and ING who ONLY deal direct).

As for the bit about "They love pushing fixed rates". I don't even know what level of facepalm to start with. Epic or gigantuan. You decide.
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New here, aren't you?

"Fee free" broker does not necessarily mean there are no booking fees from the lender.

Brokers push fixed rate products because in the current market they are getting huge kick backs from them. They love scaring people with the "the only way rates can go is up" line which is such a meaningless thing to say.
 
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NathanE said:
New here, aren't you?

"Fee free" broker does not necessarily mean there are no booking fees from the lender.

Brokers push fixed rate products because in the current market they are getting huge kick backs from them. They love scaring people with the "the only way rates can go is up" line which is such a meaningless thing to say.
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LOL.

You are showing your ignorance.

Booking fees from lenders are the same regardless if you go to the lender direct or through a broker. They dont just hike the fee because its not been done directly with them, so it makes NO difference if you go direct or through a broker.

Secondly, brokers do NOT get paid more procuration fee for doing a fixed rate product. Banks make roughly the same margin on a fixed product as they do on a tracker. They are priced differently because they are funded differently. The higher cost on the product reflects the higher cost to the bank of their funding source.

Dont mean to shoot you down, but I know what I am on about - I have worked in mortgages for 10 years, both for banks and as a broker and what you have been posting is total nonsense.
 
BDEE said:
LOL.

You are showing your ignorance.

Booking fees from lenders are the same regardless if you go to the lender direct or through a broker. They dont just hike the fee because its not been done directly with them, so it makes NO difference if you go direct or through a broker.

Secondly, brokers do NOT get paid more procuration fee for doing a fixed rate product. Banks make roughly the same margin on a fixed product as they do on a tracker. They are priced differently because they are funded differently. The higher cost on the product reflects the higher cost to the bank of their funding source.

Dont mean to shoot you down, but I know what I am on about - I have worked in mortgages for 10 years, both for banks and as a broker and what you have been posting is total nonsense.
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You can bash that keyboard of yours as hard as you like, it doesn't make any difference to what I've posted. Which was all a factual account of my experience in searching for a mortgage back in October.

"They dont just hike the fee because its not been done directly with them"

I never said they did?

That you are/were a mortgage broker sort of explains your hostility towards what I've posted.

BTW the absolute best that brokers could offer me back in October with 68% LTV was a £999 booking fee. And if I wanted a product that would allow overpayments, the lowest booking fee was close to £1499. I went direct to Nationwide and paid just £99 to book and that's with unlimited overpayments.

Yes to get the absolute best deals when you go direct you often have to jump a few hoops. Like I had to switch my current account to Nationwide. But it was worth it.
 
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colthillary said:
Im aware that a tracker will give you a better rate, however fixed gives security in these uncertain times. Id be looking at a five year fixed at 4.19%.
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Not sure what you mean about these uncertain times. We are in one of the longest periods of stable interest rates in the last 40 years (that's as far back as I could easily see) as well as it being the lowest in history.

With the economy being in the tank there is little chance (admittedly not zero but slight) that the interest rate is going to rise significantly in the immediate future, it would just finish off the economy due to everyone being so heavily indebted.

I've been on fixed rate for the last 7 years, for the same reason, security and knowing exactly what I needed to pay. But I'm now going to let it drop to svr this month as it will be base + 1.99%= 2.49%....I'm currently paying 4.09% fixed.

Even though they offered me a tempting 2.99% fixed for 2yrs or 3.99% for 5yrs, when I checked the small print, when these deals finished it dropped to a svr of base+3.39%! Sneaky!
 
NathanE said:
You can bash that keyboard of yours as hard as you like, it doesn't make any difference to what I've posted. Which was all a factual account of my experience in searching for a mortgage back in October.

"They dont just hike the fee because its not been done directly with them"

I never said they did?

That you are/were a mortgage broker sort of explains your hostility towards what I've posted.

BTW the absolute best that brokers could offer me back in October with 68% LTV was a £999 booking fee. And if I wanted a product that would allow overpayments, the lowest booking fee was close to £1499. I went direct to Nationwide and paid just £99 to book and that's with unlimited overpayments.

Yes to get the absolute best deals when you go direct you often have to jump a few hoops. Like I had to switch my current account to Nationwide. But it was worth it.
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I dont get what you are on about regarding the fees. You say you never said the fee was hiked for dealing with a broker, but you say that deals from brokers always have a fee with a minimum of £999 in another post (which is not factually correct) - so what exacatly *are* you saying?

Whatever you want to believe, but it just is not factually correct I'm afraid. That might have been your perceived experience, but the fact is that last October I know that there were, as there are now, plenty of products available with fees below £999 through brokers just the same as being available directly from lenders.

I am not a mortgage broker, I was in the past - I am "hostile" towards your post because it is a load of tosh. The information you are putting out to someone is factually incorrect and if listened to might potentially mean them not getting something that could have been the best thing for them. I don't give two hoots about who people deal with - It's a free market and I have nothing to gain regardless of what people do. What I do give two hoots about is people who think they know everything about mortgages and finance giving out mis-information. It bugs the hell out of me.

So now you know why I am "hostle", what is your excuse?
 
Freakbro said:
Not sure what you mean about these uncertain times. We are in one of the longest periods of stable interest rates in the last 40 years (that's as far back as I could easily see) as well as it being the lowest in history.
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Actually, we are not.

In terms of bank rate, yes.

In terms of SWAP rates and LIBOR, as well as other funding markets, absoloutely not. They are in VERY unusual scenarios at the moment and seeing some really odd things happening. This is why you are seeing mortgage rates, both fixed and tracker / varible, increasing at the moment, by some substansial margin, almost week on week at the moment.

The "stable" times ended about 12 months ago in terms of the underlying cost of funding, but even then it wasn't really stable, it was just cheap, folliwing 24 months of pretty constant decreases on the lending markets.

It's great and nice and stable for people who are on existing tracker deals, or have deals maturing onto a tracker soon, not so great for people on / maturing onto SVRs or who will be looking for new mortgage funding in the year ahead.
 
BDEE said:
I dont get what you are on about regarding the fees. You say you never said the fee was hiked for dealing with a broker, but you say that deals from brokers always have a fee with a minimum of £999 in another post (which is not factually correct) - so what exacatly *are* you saying?

Whatever you want to believe, but it just is not factually correct I'm afraid. That might have been your perceived experience, but the fact is that last October I know that there were, as there are now, plenty of products available with fees below £999 through brokers just the same as being available directly from lenders.

I am not a mortgage broker, I was in the past - I am "hostile" towards your post because it is a load of tosh. The information you are putting out to someone is factually incorrect and if listened to might potentially mean them not getting something that could have been the best thing for them. I don't give two hoots about who people deal with - It's a free market and I have nothing to gain regardless of what people do. What I do give two hoots about is people who think they know everything about mortgages and finance giving out mis-information. It bugs the hell out of me.

So now you know why I am "hostle", what is your excuse?
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But I'm not "claiming to know everything about mortgages"? Wtf?

Nobody gives a flying **** that you're a mortgage broker. It doesn't suddenly make everything you say correct. The fact that you are basically claiming I am lying about my experience in searching for a mortgage is bizarre. Why would I lie about something as inane as searching for a mortgage? It's not rocket science. It's basic math and logic.

Yes I'm sure there were (and still are) products available below a £999 booking fee. But you're missing the point (again). They weren't relevant because they weren't competitive with the interest rate and/or product features I was able to get from going direct to either HSBC or Nationwide. I could get a £99 booking fee, 2.75% tracker (2.25 above base) and no ERC from Nationwide. No broker that I went to back in October could match this. So what if a broker DOES have a product with £0 booking fee but the rate is say 2% higher than something else you've found, it's not exactly going to be considered seriously by the customer is it?

The problem you are having is that you're seeing things through the eyes of a broker. Not through the eyes of a customer. That's why you're struggling to empathise and are being incredibly hostile.
 
I used a broker who charged no fee, got a lower fee mortgage then I could directly. A lot of the mortgages were under £1000 fee too, some were even no fee so I can't understand the assumptions above.

His only payment was commision from the lender, which was clear in the contract and was £600.

The Broker was flower who are in most Romans estate agents I believe.
 
I've never paid a mortgage fee yet in the 3-4 products Ive taken out, all fixed rate.

I've helped quite a few people with their mortgages too as people get fixated on the % and tend to ignore the fee. And just as in your example above Nathan, you also have to check it the other way around.

Say for a fixed rate over 2 years @ 3.59% with a fee of £999 would be more expensive than a fixed rate over 2 years @ 3.99% with no fee.

It's not rocket science of course, but we know about the poor state of numeracy in the UK :p
 
Is the APR at the end of a fix term deal important? From what I understand these change throughout the lenght of the mortgage anyway. So for example a provider saying 1% at the end of the fixed term could easily be changed the 10% by the time your deal ends.

Is this correct?
 
The fixed term (or the introductory rate of a tracker) lasts for a set number of years. Then you fall back onto the standard variable rate of the lender. It is important but generally most people will remortgage once their introductory rate has lapsed. The key is in making sure there are no or very little redemption charges (often called ERC or early repayment charge). This way you can either stick with the SVR or remortgage, it depends upon what the markets are doing at the time.
 
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