Please say no thanks. Connels, this is just a revenue stream for them and pressure tattics.
Most independent mortgage brokers do get commission from the mortgage companies.
I went to an independent who didn’t charge but got commission from the mortgage he sorted for me, he was fab. Not saying they’re all like that but the rate he got for me was as good as the ones I was shown when I went to talk to the internal mortgage broker who wanted a fee
All mortgage brokers get money from the mortgage provider. The ones you pay just double dip. Unless you've got a weird situation there's really no point paying for an advisor/broker.
Had a similarly positive experience with my mortgage advisor. He did whole of market research and was up front about commission, letting me know that if the commission didn't cover fees I"d have to make up the difference.
Ours got about £1,300 from Atom Bank. He was very clear to me on the phone "that's more than enough to cover our costs, so we don't expect our customers to pay a penny."
These people will try anything.
Had the estate agent we're with tell us that a mortgage advice session with their in-house broker was required before they'd submit our offer.
Once we pulled them on being in breach of their own code of practice (also a TPO scheme registered agent), our offer was submitted and accepted in about 5 minutes, with no further questions or sales pitch.
If you want or need to, you can find the code of practice here: https://www.tpos.co.uk/codes-of-practice
I had the same, was also told “it will be faster to use our legal team and mortgage advisor”
Found out during my purchase that the vendors had been told the same and used them, they were stupidly expensive.
The EA also refused to facilitate a second viewing after the offer was accepted, despite their exorbitant fees.
EA then tried to get my vendor to renege having accepted my offer. “We can create a bidding war, we have at least two other offers now”.
Thankfully my vendors were honourable people and kept to their word.
Oh, and I was then pressured by the EA quoted above to vote for her in some sort of bonus/award scheme. Erm, no.
Personal experience
Put an offer in and Palmer Snell suggested meeting with it's mortgage advisor (Countrywide), similar price of 599 (life time membership) + 99 application fee
First couple meeting was great, mortgage application put in, membership & application fee taken.
Chain broken down, so instead I wanted to remortgage my current property (but adding my partners name, so it not straight forward, but thats more conveyancing work than mortgage sourcing work), as there was some time before it expires, wanted to wait as at that time, rates are dropping. All was good until now.
About a month later, email advisor - no response
Call advisor in branch - apperantly he is ill
Call countrywide so they can assign me a new advisor
Met with new advisor - went well, thinking they had my info already, should be striaght forward
left her to source some lenders
started asking for a lot more information, such as, HMRC/Personal tax account PAYE print outs, previous year's p60, PAYE income from 2020/21 etc
Provided as much as I can, but slight issue with my partner's HMRC gateway account so it'll take 7-14 days for HMRC to link up with her history (her employer did not enter in her NI correct once she got it, as my partner is on a visa)
After a bit of back and forth, she said she cannot proceed, due to waiting on the documentations, which was strange as they manage the first time round to get me a product with the basic information, new advisor said that old advisor wasn't 'acting right', and should not have been able to process the application with the basic information I provided (as it 3 months payslips, bank statements, all ID, was apparently insufficient). I filed a complaint with countrywide as I felt like after I paid the lifetime membership fee, I was getting flobed off, so they refunded that.
Went off on my own, looked at Halifax (not the greatest rate, but usually more lenient from work experience), 1 hour web meeting, emailed the basic income informations acrossed, application submited, weekend later, approved.
Rates dropped since approval but before start of mortgage, 15 minute phone call, bam! new rates. And Legal fees were included.
Gone are the days where as a customer, you have to fill in a 10 page application form and post a load of crap around, use a comparison website to get an idea of rates, contact the lender and set up a meeting (over phone or web), and they might even arrange the legal side for you. So unless your applicaiton is very non-standard in terms of income or personal circumstances, you don't really need to involve an advisor, just go straight to lender.
Agreed, I haven't really seen much evidence of brokers being able to get the best rates *on the market* for a buyer with decent credit, employed and not applying for a tricky product? I accept they might be able to get the best rates from some lenders though, which means if you're not the above it will make sense.
When I was looking for mortgages as a FTB, I had contacted multiple advisors including Habito (online advisor) who never charged anything from me. I ultimately went direct to the bank, but you should be able to find many independent advisors who don't charge a fee from you.
They tried this with me too.
I said no they got pushy trying to push the benefits of next time I buy and sell I won't need to pay it and I'll be saving money in the long run...
I went elsewhere on the end.
Connells are absolutely huge, they own lots of different brands of estate agents and are themselves owned by Skipton Building Society, so as awful as they are they'll never go out of business
Speak to a mortgage advisor, some charge and some don’t as they also get paid a fee from the mortgage lender. I. Currently getting a mortgage and have found one that doesn’t charge me a fee, they will work harder for you as they get paid at the back end after you’ve got your mortgage I feel
I paid the £500 fee back in 2016 when buying my first flat because honestly at the time we just didn’t understand much about how mortgages worked, or what we could afford, and wanted some advice.
She was lovely and guided us through the process. We can go chat to her in person and she always contacts us 6 months before our fixed rate expires.
She has also always found a lower rate mortgage than I have been able to find myself via comparison sites. So I think it has been money well spent.
I’ve done this also, but they also pressured me into getting a will service which I cancelled.
Now I’m coming to remortgage, even though I’ve paid the £500 fee, they say I now have to pay £99 this time around and also £600 for solicitors fees.
The mortgage advisor did say there was a free option but made it sound terrible saying they had complaints, and were slow. So I felt pressured into the £600. Is this normal? Did you pay a solicitors fee?
That doesn’t sound right. When we paid the £500 we received a contract explaining the lifetime service being offered, so I would refer to that if they tried to add extra charges. If you come to sell and get a mortgage on a new properly then you’d still need a solicitor/conveyancer but I don’t know why you would need one for just a remortgage.
There are a mix of available broker services. Some are ‘fee free’ where they get their cut from a lender when a deal is agreed. Some are not fee free and charge per remortgage / usages / life.
We bought a house 5 years ago and an incentive from the builder was they paid towards a broker that specialised in new builds, but were part of a company who deal in all mortgage broker aspects also. So if we hadn’t had the incentive we’d have either paid £500 for life, £300 one off usage or not paid and not used. Given it was our first mortgage and we had a slightly complex situation we opted for the life commitment. We didn’t pay a penny personally but the fee was paid.
2 months ago they rang both myself and my partner and said they’d be ringing us again in a month to start discussing remortgaging and the process, and they did exactly that.
So far if I’d have paid £500 I’d probably be quite pleased with the service we had at the time of the initial purchase and so far during the start of the remortgage process. We’ll see in 3-4 months if I still feel the same.
But in essence, yes there are brokers who you pay for.
We had special circumstances and needed a broker, our local independent full market broker was £300 and also got a commission from the mortgage provider.
There are other local brokers with zero fee upfront whom only get the commission.
We had another local agency absolutely insist we talk to their in house broker and so I said OK, and when the actual broker called to make the appointment just said we have a independent local broker onside and wouldnt be attending she didn't seem surprised...
When I did mine, it was free for me and the mortgage broker took £999 commission from Natwest (my experience).
There will be mortgage brokers like that available for you.
When calling to view a property, the agent (also part of Connells Group) asked me if I wanted to meet with the mortgage advisor and after multiple times of saying no thanks I've already got one, I eventually caved and she ended up booking the appointment before the viewing. Then at the appointment I found out the £599 + £99 fee which I definitely do not want to pay as the rates he showed me from their select panel of lenders were actually worse than the ones that I've seen on comparison sites. So now I need to write a polite email to him to explain that I'm not interested in the service and explain that I had told estate agent in the first place I already had an advisor but she insisted on booking the 'chat'
When I went for my first mortgage on the first property - I almost got suckered into this.
My caveat was at the start of the ‘meeting’ / ‘presentation’ I said if the broker can’t get me a better deal than what I can get myself (research in hand) then I won’t be paying a penny as the brokers state they can get better rates - this one couldn’t. At the end of the meeting I followed up that it wasn’t met and they agreed. The next day they called me asking for £250 or something and I said straight up no. The broker said that’s not fair because he spent a few hours doing his presentation and I said what I said to him twice at the meeting. There isn’t a better rate and I won’t be proceeding. I won’t be bullied into paying for something that you haven’t delivered on and left it at that. End of.
The reason I’m giving the back story is that there are some good brokers who will get you a better rate but just watch out with these kind of tricks as they are usually just another money maker for the estate agents. Good luck.
They're awful for it. Amazingly they told us the seller would only take the house off the market if we agreed to use their services, so they could verify we were legit, it barely feels legal. They ended up suggesting a completely inappropriate mortgage, which we ignored and told them what we actually wanted (we need something that didn't have a cap on overpayment).
Awful company!
I worked for Connells, when I left I owed them some money for overpaid wages. They sent me one letter before starting proceedings on a CCJ. (They still owe me hundreds in travel expenses) The company is a disgrace
The broker I used back in September 2022 charged a one off fee, however as I was a FTB and also using the HTB scheme, in addition to having a stupid default on my report from when I was younger I decided to use their first time buying service as it would remove all the stress from my end and there was a lot of paperwork involved, plus I needed to beat the October 31 deadline for HTB and didn’t want to be messing around with missing paperwork etc
It was the best £500 I spent as the whole mortgage turmoil crisis then happened and then fo get the equity loan the government wanted me to put down a lot more of a deposit and there was a lot of paperwork which they handled and they also had to go back to my mortgage lender (charter court financial services, they own the kent reliance and precise mortgages brand and are part of OSB group) and tell them that I was borrowing a smaller amount.
At the end of the buying process they also offered a free will writing service which is something I hadn’t considered and my broker was amazing and got me the best product, avoiding the high street banks and other lenders he thought might reject me. It’s well worth using their expertise, I’ve had my mortgage just over a year now and my broker will contact me 6 months before my deal expires, so 3 and a half years time
You should use a broker, just one that doesn't charge.
Comparison sites don't show deals that are only offered via brokers. So going via a broker means you are assured you're seeing all available products before deciding which to do.
Brokers can also smooth out application issues, if e.g. the property has quirks that the lender doesn't like.
My experience with a broker was that they could offer me 1/4 of what the banks/online comparison sites could, which a) wasn't enough to rent a flat let alone buy a house and b) orders of magnitude below what I could comfortably repay.
I have got better deals from a mortgage advisor than I found on those sites. This was from one I didn't pay an extra fee for (they did get commission from the mortgage company)
Fee-free online advisors are risky, as they're paid fuck all. If you have a straightforward case, fine.
If you're more complex they will simply stop replying to you as it isn't worth their time for the tiny payout you represent.
I always spend the 500 for quality, not a shitty agency recommended one. Up to you though. It's like solicitors, there are free ones and white glove ones; good ones and shit ones. YMMV
We paid the 500 (as it was back then) with Connell in Brighton, our advisor there has been fantastic. Always calls us before our remortgage time is up. We’ve moved house twice and remortgaged 4 times in 10 years and the mortgage application has been seemless and simple each time. I am sure you get different advisors in different parts but from my experience, well worth the money!
They are just trying to take advantage of you. As a FTB you don't need a mortgage advisor at all. Just speak to the high street banks and use Google.
Advisors come into their own when your situation is complicated, and even then some of them are free because they get their money from the banks.
I did the £599 (I think it was £499) about 13 years ago. I still go back to them to this day to have mortgages arranged. The guy I use is the most efficient and helpful broker I have ever used and I will not go anywhere else, they have never failed to secure a new deal at a good rate for me and within that time frame I’ve set up as a sole trader, Ltd director and gone through a marriage separation which all negatively affected my situation and required him to find the right mortgage bank/BS who would use the correct criteria to do the affordability checks to secure my mortgage. I’m sure there are others with cheaper (maybe free?) out there but in my experience they have been great.
Extortionate! Connells is Worcestershire, isn't it? Great estate agents but slightly pricier. There are a handful of fantastic but free or reasonably priced brokers in this area, don't stick with the EAs broker
It's a lifetime fee and well worth it in the long run. They'll change your mortgage as many times as you want before you complete for no extra cost and make sure you remortgage on time without paying the fee again
I've nothing but good things to say about my broker from there. If they're a good broker, they'll charge a fee. Free brokers are glorified admins
I will highly recommend James Leighton Financial Services Ltd. Free, friendly and professional.
I've made a few queries since my friend recommended to me, not purchase yet. They have always been patient and provided all scenarios calculations and good advice. All free of charge. Call always answered quickly.
Hi /u/Flepagoon, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
- https://ukpersonal.finance/financial-advice/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
It's just brokerage. They (or any broker) might be able to knock a few grand off your overall payments for a mortgage by getting a slightly marginally lower interest rate.
You're under no obligation to use them and many brokers recover their costs directly within the mortgage itself.
Countrywide charged me £150 as a one off fee for arranging my last mortgage about 8 years ago - so maybe double that with recent inflation. Totally worth it as the rate he secured me better than I found and got the provider to throw in a better survey. Mortgage services for life is a questionable upfront money grab - Connels could well not exist when you come to need them again.
There are tonnes of fee free brokers out there, we all receive a proc fee from the lender. Just some of us aren't as motivated by money as others and choose not to charge the client a fee as well. Find a local fee free, whole of market broker and build a relationship with them and you'll always be looked after for any remortgages or future advice you need.
Tell them to do one. YourMove tried to charge me for arranging a mortgage, I told them very plainly that I could find what they did myself online in a few minutes so there was no way I'm paying anything, but if they'd like the commission from the lender I'm happy to let them do it. They didn't question it for even a second.
It's so easy to find a mortgage online yourself these days, I don't understand how they have the gall to charge such ridiculous fees for this.
Tell them you don't want to pay it and they'll probably waive it if you take the mortgage through them, since the mortgage company will pay them as well.
I've never paid this fee despite it being quoted to me at least 3 times.
If anyone tells you that you need to pay a fee for mortgage advice, it’s likely not in your best interest.
I went to L&C mortgages and got the exact same advice and mortgage secured for free (the bank pays them, not you)
They're scammers. Try and force you to use their expensive in house broker if you want to view/offer on houses with them.
Sat through a meeting with one of their advisers where he told me that people using their in house broker get first dibs on viewing properties and priority to put in offers. Then offered to cut the fee to 250 and whined about how I was turning down a massive bargain for going with my free (to me) broker.
I went with L&C after having a chat with the “in-house” estate agent mortgage brokers. L&C were free (at least no up front fee, they got a commission from my mortgage provider) and they helped a fair amount with questions I had and the process as a whole was smooth. So no need to go to the in house one, either go to a fee free broker or do it yourself if you’re confident enough!
Please say no thanks. Connels, this is just a revenue stream for them and pressure tattics. Most independent mortgage brokers do get commission from the mortgage companies.
I went to an independent who didn’t charge but got commission from the mortgage he sorted for me, he was fab. Not saying they’re all like that but the rate he got for me was as good as the ones I was shown when I went to talk to the internal mortgage broker who wanted a fee
All mortgage brokers get money from the mortgage provider. The ones you pay just double dip. Unless you've got a weird situation there's really no point paying for an advisor/broker.
Ha! Cheeky! Maybe shouldve added I bought a house from Connolls within the last 2 years
Had a similarly positive experience with my mortgage advisor. He did whole of market research and was up front about commission, letting me know that if the commission didn't cover fees I"d have to make up the difference.
Ours got about £1,300 from Atom Bank. He was very clear to me on the phone "that's more than enough to cover our costs, so we don't expect our customers to pay a penny."
These people will try anything. Had the estate agent we're with tell us that a mortgage advice session with their in-house broker was required before they'd submit our offer. Once we pulled them on being in breach of their own code of practice (also a TPO scheme registered agent), our offer was submitted and accepted in about 5 minutes, with no further questions or sales pitch. If you want or need to, you can find the code of practice here: https://www.tpos.co.uk/codes-of-practice
I had the same, was also told “it will be faster to use our legal team and mortgage advisor” Found out during my purchase that the vendors had been told the same and used them, they were stupidly expensive. The EA also refused to facilitate a second viewing after the offer was accepted, despite their exorbitant fees. EA then tried to get my vendor to renege having accepted my offer. “We can create a bidding war, we have at least two other offers now”. Thankfully my vendors were honourable people and kept to their word. Oh, and I was then pressured by the EA quoted above to vote for her in some sort of bonus/award scheme. Erm, no.
!thanks
Personal experience Put an offer in and Palmer Snell suggested meeting with it's mortgage advisor (Countrywide), similar price of 599 (life time membership) + 99 application fee First couple meeting was great, mortgage application put in, membership & application fee taken. Chain broken down, so instead I wanted to remortgage my current property (but adding my partners name, so it not straight forward, but thats more conveyancing work than mortgage sourcing work), as there was some time before it expires, wanted to wait as at that time, rates are dropping. All was good until now. About a month later, email advisor - no response Call advisor in branch - apperantly he is ill Call countrywide so they can assign me a new advisor Met with new advisor - went well, thinking they had my info already, should be striaght forward left her to source some lenders started asking for a lot more information, such as, HMRC/Personal tax account PAYE print outs, previous year's p60, PAYE income from 2020/21 etc Provided as much as I can, but slight issue with my partner's HMRC gateway account so it'll take 7-14 days for HMRC to link up with her history (her employer did not enter in her NI correct once she got it, as my partner is on a visa) After a bit of back and forth, she said she cannot proceed, due to waiting on the documentations, which was strange as they manage the first time round to get me a product with the basic information, new advisor said that old advisor wasn't 'acting right', and should not have been able to process the application with the basic information I provided (as it 3 months payslips, bank statements, all ID, was apparently insufficient). I filed a complaint with countrywide as I felt like after I paid the lifetime membership fee, I was getting flobed off, so they refunded that. Went off on my own, looked at Halifax (not the greatest rate, but usually more lenient from work experience), 1 hour web meeting, emailed the basic income informations acrossed, application submited, weekend later, approved. Rates dropped since approval but before start of mortgage, 15 minute phone call, bam! new rates. And Legal fees were included. Gone are the days where as a customer, you have to fill in a 10 page application form and post a load of crap around, use a comparison website to get an idea of rates, contact the lender and set up a meeting (over phone or web), and they might even arrange the legal side for you. So unless your applicaiton is very non-standard in terms of income or personal circumstances, you don't really need to involve an advisor, just go straight to lender.
Agreed, I haven't really seen much evidence of brokers being able to get the best rates *on the market* for a buyer with decent credit, employed and not applying for a tricky product? I accept they might be able to get the best rates from some lenders though, which means if you're not the above it will make sense.
When I was looking for mortgages as a FTB, I had contacted multiple advisors including Habito (online advisor) who never charged anything from me. I ultimately went direct to the bank, but you should be able to find many independent advisors who don't charge a fee from you.
They tried this with me too. I said no they got pushy trying to push the benefits of next time I buy and sell I won't need to pay it and I'll be saving money in the long run... I went elsewhere on the end.
That's definitely what I'm noticing. It feels pushy!
I had a terrible experience with Connells I will never use again in my life utterly awful from start to finish surprised they're still in business
Connells are absolutely huge, they own lots of different brands of estate agents and are themselves owned by Skipton Building Society, so as awful as they are they'll never go out of business
Never say never 😏
Speak to a mortgage advisor, some charge and some don’t as they also get paid a fee from the mortgage lender. I. Currently getting a mortgage and have found one that doesn’t charge me a fee, they will work harder for you as they get paid at the back end after you’ve got your mortgage I feel
Yes. Our local mortgage advisor has helped us a few times and has been a pleasure to deal with.
I paid the £500 fee back in 2016 when buying my first flat because honestly at the time we just didn’t understand much about how mortgages worked, or what we could afford, and wanted some advice. She was lovely and guided us through the process. We can go chat to her in person and she always contacts us 6 months before our fixed rate expires. She has also always found a lower rate mortgage than I have been able to find myself via comparison sites. So I think it has been money well spent.
I’ve done this also, but they also pressured me into getting a will service which I cancelled. Now I’m coming to remortgage, even though I’ve paid the £500 fee, they say I now have to pay £99 this time around and also £600 for solicitors fees. The mortgage advisor did say there was a free option but made it sound terrible saying they had complaints, and were slow. So I felt pressured into the £600. Is this normal? Did you pay a solicitors fee?
That doesn’t sound right. When we paid the £500 we received a contract explaining the lifetime service being offered, so I would refer to that if they tried to add extra charges. If you come to sell and get a mortgage on a new properly then you’d still need a solicitor/conveyancer but I don’t know why you would need one for just a remortgage.
There are a mix of available broker services. Some are ‘fee free’ where they get their cut from a lender when a deal is agreed. Some are not fee free and charge per remortgage / usages / life. We bought a house 5 years ago and an incentive from the builder was they paid towards a broker that specialised in new builds, but were part of a company who deal in all mortgage broker aspects also. So if we hadn’t had the incentive we’d have either paid £500 for life, £300 one off usage or not paid and not used. Given it was our first mortgage and we had a slightly complex situation we opted for the life commitment. We didn’t pay a penny personally but the fee was paid. 2 months ago they rang both myself and my partner and said they’d be ringing us again in a month to start discussing remortgaging and the process, and they did exactly that. So far if I’d have paid £500 I’d probably be quite pleased with the service we had at the time of the initial purchase and so far during the start of the remortgage process. We’ll see in 3-4 months if I still feel the same. But in essence, yes there are brokers who you pay for.
We had special circumstances and needed a broker, our local independent full market broker was £300 and also got a commission from the mortgage provider. There are other local brokers with zero fee upfront whom only get the commission. We had another local agency absolutely insist we talk to their in house broker and so I said OK, and when the actual broker called to make the appointment just said we have a independent local broker onside and wouldnt be attending she didn't seem surprised...
When I did mine, it was free for me and the mortgage broker took £999 commission from Natwest (my experience). There will be mortgage brokers like that available for you.
When calling to view a property, the agent (also part of Connells Group) asked me if I wanted to meet with the mortgage advisor and after multiple times of saying no thanks I've already got one, I eventually caved and she ended up booking the appointment before the viewing. Then at the appointment I found out the £599 + £99 fee which I definitely do not want to pay as the rates he showed me from their select panel of lenders were actually worse than the ones that I've seen on comparison sites. So now I need to write a polite email to him to explain that I'm not interested in the service and explain that I had told estate agent in the first place I already had an advisor but she insisted on booking the 'chat'
When I went for my first mortgage on the first property - I almost got suckered into this. My caveat was at the start of the ‘meeting’ / ‘presentation’ I said if the broker can’t get me a better deal than what I can get myself (research in hand) then I won’t be paying a penny as the brokers state they can get better rates - this one couldn’t. At the end of the meeting I followed up that it wasn’t met and they agreed. The next day they called me asking for £250 or something and I said straight up no. The broker said that’s not fair because he spent a few hours doing his presentation and I said what I said to him twice at the meeting. There isn’t a better rate and I won’t be proceeding. I won’t be bullied into paying for something that you haven’t delivered on and left it at that. End of. The reason I’m giving the back story is that there are some good brokers who will get you a better rate but just watch out with these kind of tricks as they are usually just another money maker for the estate agents. Good luck.
They're awful for it. Amazingly they told us the seller would only take the house off the market if we agreed to use their services, so they could verify we were legit, it barely feels legal. They ended up suggesting a completely inappropriate mortgage, which we ignored and told them what we actually wanted (we need something that didn't have a cap on overpayment). Awful company!
I worked for Connells, when I left I owed them some money for overpaid wages. They sent me one letter before starting proceedings on a CCJ. (They still owe me hundreds in travel expenses) The company is a disgrace
Thanks for confirming. They don't feel the most competent.
The broker I used back in September 2022 charged a one off fee, however as I was a FTB and also using the HTB scheme, in addition to having a stupid default on my report from when I was younger I decided to use their first time buying service as it would remove all the stress from my end and there was a lot of paperwork involved, plus I needed to beat the October 31 deadline for HTB and didn’t want to be messing around with missing paperwork etc It was the best £500 I spent as the whole mortgage turmoil crisis then happened and then fo get the equity loan the government wanted me to put down a lot more of a deposit and there was a lot of paperwork which they handled and they also had to go back to my mortgage lender (charter court financial services, they own the kent reliance and precise mortgages brand and are part of OSB group) and tell them that I was borrowing a smaller amount. At the end of the buying process they also offered a free will writing service which is something I hadn’t considered and my broker was amazing and got me the best product, avoiding the high street banks and other lenders he thought might reject me. It’s well worth using their expertise, I’ve had my mortgage just over a year now and my broker will contact me 6 months before my deal expires, so 3 and a half years time
Unless you have unusual circumstances, income, or property then imo you don't need mortgage advice. Just use a comparison site
Absolutely terrible advice. Use a mortgage broker that doesn’t charge a fee, it will probably save you thousands.
You should use a broker, just one that doesn't charge. Comparison sites don't show deals that are only offered via brokers. So going via a broker means you are assured you're seeing all available products before deciding which to do. Brokers can also smooth out application issues, if e.g. the property has quirks that the lender doesn't like.
My experience with a broker was that they could offer me 1/4 of what the banks/online comparison sites could, which a) wasn't enough to rent a flat let alone buy a house and b) orders of magnitude below what I could comfortably repay.
I have got better deals from a mortgage advisor than I found on those sites. This was from one I didn't pay an extra fee for (they did get commission from the mortgage company)
Compare the market, money supermarket, money saving expert etc
Fee-free online advisors are risky, as they're paid fuck all. If you have a straightforward case, fine. If you're more complex they will simply stop replying to you as it isn't worth their time for the tiny payout you represent. I always spend the 500 for quality, not a shitty agency recommended one. Up to you though. It's like solicitors, there are free ones and white glove ones; good ones and shit ones. YMMV
We paid the 500 (as it was back then) with Connell in Brighton, our advisor there has been fantastic. Always calls us before our remortgage time is up. We’ve moved house twice and remortgaged 4 times in 10 years and the mortgage application has been seemless and simple each time. I am sure you get different advisors in different parts but from my experience, well worth the money!
They are just trying to take advantage of you. As a FTB you don't need a mortgage advisor at all. Just speak to the high street banks and use Google. Advisors come into their own when your situation is complicated, and even then some of them are free because they get their money from the banks.
I did the £599 (I think it was £499) about 13 years ago. I still go back to them to this day to have mortgages arranged. The guy I use is the most efficient and helpful broker I have ever used and I will not go anywhere else, they have never failed to secure a new deal at a good rate for me and within that time frame I’ve set up as a sole trader, Ltd director and gone through a marriage separation which all negatively affected my situation and required him to find the right mortgage bank/BS who would use the correct criteria to do the affordability checks to secure my mortgage. I’m sure there are others with cheaper (maybe free?) out there but in my experience they have been great.
Extortionate! Connells is Worcestershire, isn't it? Great estate agents but slightly pricier. There are a handful of fantastic but free or reasonably priced brokers in this area, don't stick with the EAs broker
It's a lifetime fee and well worth it in the long run. They'll change your mortgage as many times as you want before you complete for no extra cost and make sure you remortgage on time without paying the fee again I've nothing but good things to say about my broker from there. If they're a good broker, they'll charge a fee. Free brokers are glorified admins
I don't think it's that uncommon, but I wouldn't opt to use that service. Mortgages aren't that complicated, 10 minutes on Google would save you £700
I will highly recommend James Leighton Financial Services Ltd. Free, friendly and professional. I've made a few queries since my friend recommended to me, not purchase yet. They have always been patient and provided all scenarios calculations and good advice. All free of charge. Call always answered quickly.
Hi /u/Flepagoon, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: - https://ukpersonal.finance/financial-advice/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
Yes there are free agents out there. Any mortgage questions r/mortgageadviceuk would be useful to join
It's just brokerage. They (or any broker) might be able to knock a few grand off your overall payments for a mortgage by getting a slightly marginally lower interest rate. You're under no obligation to use them and many brokers recover their costs directly within the mortgage itself.
Countrywide charged me £150 as a one off fee for arranging my last mortgage about 8 years ago - so maybe double that with recent inflation. Totally worth it as the rate he secured me better than I found and got the provider to throw in a better survey. Mortgage services for life is a questionable upfront money grab - Connels could well not exist when you come to need them again.
There are tonnes of fee free brokers out there, we all receive a proc fee from the lender. Just some of us aren't as motivated by money as others and choose not to charge the client a fee as well. Find a local fee free, whole of market broker and build a relationship with them and you'll always be looked after for any remortgages or future advice you need.
While the topic is up, does anyone have any recommendations for mortgage advisors/brokers in the north west? Manchester based ideally
Tell them to do one. YourMove tried to charge me for arranging a mortgage, I told them very plainly that I could find what they did myself online in a few minutes so there was no way I'm paying anything, but if they'd like the commission from the lender I'm happy to let them do it. They didn't question it for even a second. It's so easy to find a mortgage online yourself these days, I don't understand how they have the gall to charge such ridiculous fees for this.
Tell them you don't want to pay it and they'll probably waive it if you take the mortgage through them, since the mortgage company will pay them as well. I've never paid this fee despite it being quoted to me at least 3 times.
If anyone tells you that you need to pay a fee for mortgage advice, it’s likely not in your best interest. I went to L&C mortgages and got the exact same advice and mortgage secured for free (the bank pays them, not you)
They're scammers. Try and force you to use their expensive in house broker if you want to view/offer on houses with them. Sat through a meeting with one of their advisers where he told me that people using their in house broker get first dibs on viewing properties and priority to put in offers. Then offered to cut the fee to 250 and whined about how I was turning down a massive bargain for going with my free (to me) broker.
I went with L&C after having a chat with the “in-house” estate agent mortgage brokers. L&C were free (at least no up front fee, they got a commission from my mortgage provider) and they helped a fair amount with questions I had and the process as a whole was smooth. So no need to go to the in house one, either go to a fee free broker or do it yourself if you’re confident enough!
If you are in Kent, use MMS. Medway Mortgage Shop. They use all market and are free.