Mortgage brokers/ Independant Financial Advisors
Discussion
I'm going to be moving home soon.
I know how much I want to borrow and through a few lenders websites ascertained that my plans are not unrealistic. I've found a number of products that I like and that are currently competetive, the best being from HSBC:
2.99% fixed for 2 years, £599 product fee, 20% over payments possible with no penalty, no extended tie in etc.
However several people have been telling me that I need to get myself an IFA/Mortgage broker as they know the market better than me, will be able to tell me what I can afford to borrow and will find me the best deal.
Given I understand mortgage products what else will an Boker/IFA bring to the party?
I used one when 12 years ago when I bought my current house and was given bad advice that cost me £.
I know how much I want to borrow and through a few lenders websites ascertained that my plans are not unrealistic. I've found a number of products that I like and that are currently competetive, the best being from HSBC:
2.99% fixed for 2 years, £599 product fee, 20% over payments possible with no penalty, no extended tie in etc.
However several people have been telling me that I need to get myself an IFA/Mortgage broker as they know the market better than me, will be able to tell me what I can afford to borrow and will find me the best deal.
Given I understand mortgage products what else will an Boker/IFA bring to the party?
I used one when 12 years ago when I bought my current house and was given bad advice that cost me £.
t. Devil2575 said:
I'm going to be moving home soon.
I know how much I want to borrow and through a few lenders websites ascertained that my plans are not unrealistic. I've found a number of products that I like and that are currently competetive, the best being from HSBC:
2.99% fixed for 2 years, £599 product fee, 20% over payments possible with no penalty, no extended tie in etc.
However several people have been telling me that I need to get myself an IFA/Mortgage broker as they know the market better than me, will be able to tell me what I can afford to borrow and will find me the best deal.
Given I understand mortgage products what else will an Boker/IFA bring to the party?
I used one when 12 years ago when I bought my current house and was given bad advice that cost me £.
An IFA/Mortgage Broker (Yes I am one!!) would be able to guide you lending criteria based on knowledge of the mortgage market. For example, if you were a contract worker they could tell you not to waste three months applying to a lender who will not accept your profile. It's not always possible to find a better rate than what is available on the net, but utilising someone's experience can save you a lot of time and heartache. Comparison sites can give you information but not advice. A lot of people still have no idea about mortgages and really need help and guidance whereas some are happy to rely on their own experience.I know how much I want to borrow and through a few lenders websites ascertained that my plans are not unrealistic. I've found a number of products that I like and that are currently competetive, the best being from HSBC:
2.99% fixed for 2 years, £599 product fee, 20% over payments possible with no penalty, no extended tie in etc.
However several people have been telling me that I need to get myself an IFA/Mortgage broker as they know the market better than me, will be able to tell me what I can afford to borrow and will find me the best deal.
Given I understand mortgage products what else will an Boker/IFA bring to the party?
I used one when 12 years ago when I bought my current house and was given bad advice that cost me £.
Like with anything though, a bad one can also cause you grief. But as there are only approx 8000 brokers left in the UK compared to 30,000 four years ago, hopefully all the cowboys have left the building by now.
A good Broker will:-
Discuss with you type of deal and duration, a two year fix may drop you in to remortgaging as rates go up.
Advise on overall best deal taking in to account rate, fees and reversion rate.
Find out if you can get the mortgage, ie criteria etc. Getting very difficult and complicated these days with some lenders, and a decline does not look good on your credit history.
Deal with the form filling and obtaining supporting documents.
Liase with lender, estate agent and solicitor to ensure transaction goes through as smoothly as possible. Including if required recommending a solictor who charges sensible fees, and gets the job done quickly and properly.
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
Sometimes the cheapest deal is not the best, you may want to check out online reviews of HSBC before you think of using them, round here some estate agents are advising against accepting offers from people intending to use HSBC as their service levels are so bad...
Discuss with you type of deal and duration, a two year fix may drop you in to remortgaging as rates go up.
Advise on overall best deal taking in to account rate, fees and reversion rate.
Find out if you can get the mortgage, ie criteria etc. Getting very difficult and complicated these days with some lenders, and a decline does not look good on your credit history.
Deal with the form filling and obtaining supporting documents.
Liase with lender, estate agent and solicitor to ensure transaction goes through as smoothly as possible. Including if required recommending a solictor who charges sensible fees, and gets the job done quickly and properly.
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
Sometimes the cheapest deal is not the best, you may want to check out online reviews of HSBC before you think of using them, round here some estate agents are advising against accepting offers from people intending to use HSBC as their service levels are so bad...
Stevemr said:
Sometimes the cheapest deal is not the best, you may want to check out online reviews of HSBC before you think of using them, round here some estate agents are advising against accepting offers from people intending to use HSBC as their service levels are so bad...
This is a very valid point.HSBC, along with Natwest, have probably the highest decline rate of any lender. Also, they don't just decline the application at the outset, they accept the application, string it along for a few months and then decline it, causing lots of grief for all concerned.
They advertise headline rates to entice people in, but then cherry pick from the applicants.
Stevemr said:
Sometimes the cheapest deal is not the best, you may want to check out online reviews of HSBC before you think of using them, round here some estate agents are advising against accepting offers from people intending to use HSBC as their service levels are so bad...
This is certainly happening in London & the south East. Agents are paranoid about chain breaks in a fragile market, and HSBC are one of the worst for delays and late refusals to lend.As Sarnie says they are cherry picking their cases.
Interesting its not just up North then!
Lest anyone think are yes but we are brokers and would say that, this is the first review on the review centre that took me 2 minutes to find this morning after googling hsbc mortgage reviews:-
"HSBC TWO Mortgage offer disaster and still no sale."
We applied for a mortgage over the telephone to take advantage of there great rates. The application was sucsessfull, all of that was required was for us to send our personal/confidential information which we did the following day.
After 15 days of no corrispondence we chased HSBC only to find out that they cancelled the application as they had not received the paperwork. No problem, the application was recreated and we were told to take our paperwork into a branch. The branch checked our paperwork and contacted head office to conirm the application only to tell us that there was no application on the system. Not a problem as we had all of the paperwork (checked by HSBC)..a mortgage was approved there and then by the branch ,manager.
Two days later we were asked to provide missing bank statements and payslips to complete the application. Again we provided originals... This went on for another week so we contacted the branch who looked into it. It turns out that they were in the process of approving the original mortgage application in addition to the one approved in the branch. The second application was cancelled. Finally we have a mortgage.
The owners of the property that we are purchasing are now threatening to put the house on the market as we had agreed a quick sale. We are currently renting and the house we are buying is vacant. It took another couple of weeks for the survey to be done. Two surveyors from separate companies turned up which we assume was due to the two mortgage offers.
The quick sale (estimated at 6 weeks max) now 12 weeks in (remember, no chain) is still ongoing all because of Countrywide solicitors (CSL) who are not solicitors but a company who distribute work out to other firms of solicitors do not have a clue what is going on or are not contactable. We are not able to contact the solicitor directly only CSL who do not know what is going on with our case and are not sure which solicitor is responsible for it. Our solicitor which we decided to accept the HSBC fee for using has just sent the following fax (the only acceptable form of contact with CSL) to CSL; "We refer to our many telephone calls with your office in respect of the above and remain disappointed and extremely frustrated at the continuing delays.
You contacted us on Friday to acknowledge safe receipt of our letter of 12 April, which was also sent by fax and assured us that you would be able to review the file maybe not by the end of Friday but most certainly by Monday.
We contacted your office yesterday and again we did not have the courtesy of any call back from you until earlier today when, unsurprisingly we were advised that you have received our letter of 12 April and the matter was being reviewed!
We appear no further forward despite assurances from your firm that the file will be expedited. We remain without any explanation as to why there are continued delays and discouraged that with all due respect, can never seem to speak to any person who knows what the current position is as they either do not have access to the file or all case handlers and/or supervisors are busy.
You can please appreciate both ours and our clients position in that
this situation is unquestionably appalling."
We could exchange by the end of the week, then again we said that last week... The house we are buying is now back on the market, the house with the nice new carpets (one of the reasons for the purchase) is now being trampled on by more prospective buyers.
Only use HSBC if you want a cheep deal but are not to bothered about purchasing the house as there is a very strong chance the sale will fall through. ...thanks HSBC"
Lest anyone think are yes but we are brokers and would say that, this is the first review on the review centre that took me 2 minutes to find this morning after googling hsbc mortgage reviews:-
"HSBC TWO Mortgage offer disaster and still no sale."
We applied for a mortgage over the telephone to take advantage of there great rates. The application was sucsessfull, all of that was required was for us to send our personal/confidential information which we did the following day.
After 15 days of no corrispondence we chased HSBC only to find out that they cancelled the application as they had not received the paperwork. No problem, the application was recreated and we were told to take our paperwork into a branch. The branch checked our paperwork and contacted head office to conirm the application only to tell us that there was no application on the system. Not a problem as we had all of the paperwork (checked by HSBC)..a mortgage was approved there and then by the branch ,manager.
Two days later we were asked to provide missing bank statements and payslips to complete the application. Again we provided originals... This went on for another week so we contacted the branch who looked into it. It turns out that they were in the process of approving the original mortgage application in addition to the one approved in the branch. The second application was cancelled. Finally we have a mortgage.
The owners of the property that we are purchasing are now threatening to put the house on the market as we had agreed a quick sale. We are currently renting and the house we are buying is vacant. It took another couple of weeks for the survey to be done. Two surveyors from separate companies turned up which we assume was due to the two mortgage offers.
The quick sale (estimated at 6 weeks max) now 12 weeks in (remember, no chain) is still ongoing all because of Countrywide solicitors (CSL) who are not solicitors but a company who distribute work out to other firms of solicitors do not have a clue what is going on or are not contactable. We are not able to contact the solicitor directly only CSL who do not know what is going on with our case and are not sure which solicitor is responsible for it. Our solicitor which we decided to accept the HSBC fee for using has just sent the following fax (the only acceptable form of contact with CSL) to CSL; "We refer to our many telephone calls with your office in respect of the above and remain disappointed and extremely frustrated at the continuing delays.
You contacted us on Friday to acknowledge safe receipt of our letter of 12 April, which was also sent by fax and assured us that you would be able to review the file maybe not by the end of Friday but most certainly by Monday.
We contacted your office yesterday and again we did not have the courtesy of any call back from you until earlier today when, unsurprisingly we were advised that you have received our letter of 12 April and the matter was being reviewed!
We appear no further forward despite assurances from your firm that the file will be expedited. We remain without any explanation as to why there are continued delays and discouraged that with all due respect, can never seem to speak to any person who knows what the current position is as they either do not have access to the file or all case handlers and/or supervisors are busy.
You can please appreciate both ours and our clients position in that
this situation is unquestionably appalling."
We could exchange by the end of the week, then again we said that last week... The house we are buying is now back on the market, the house with the nice new carpets (one of the reasons for the purchase) is now being trampled on by more prospective buyers.
Only use HSBC if you want a cheep deal but are not to bothered about purchasing the house as there is a very strong chance the sale will fall through. ...thanks HSBC"
Stevemr said:
A good Broker will:-
(snip)
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
What insurance products might I need for a mortgage, aside from buildings insurance as the lender wants to be protected against their security burning down? I ask because I didn't use a broker and didn't take out any other insurance related to the mortgage, so I'm intrigued by this statement.(snip)
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
The only insurance you have to have is buildings and you do not need to take it from Bank.
In Brief!!
Others to think about, depending on circumstances:-
Life insurance, some banks load premiums a lot! Unless joint consider writing in trust!
Critical illness- I am not a big fan, its to much of a lottery, get one illness mortgage paid off, get a different un listed illness and get nothing
Serious illness:- a complicated but much better form of Critical illness cover ( covers many more illnesses)
Income protection:- The best, unless you get full sick pay for ever! Pays out if you are off work ill until you are better or retire, the best types are own occupation, index linked, guaranteed premiums, this one is properly complicated and you do not really want to be buying this off the internet on your own.
Unemployment cover:- worth thinking about especially if you have little or no savings and will not just walk in to another job. But quite expensive, pays out for 12 or 24 months.
Mortgage payment protection:- what the banks will try and sell you, pays out if you are ill for up to 12 months, can frequently do Income protection for same money!
Hope that helps a bit.
In Brief!!
Others to think about, depending on circumstances:-
Life insurance, some banks load premiums a lot! Unless joint consider writing in trust!
Critical illness- I am not a big fan, its to much of a lottery, get one illness mortgage paid off, get a different un listed illness and get nothing
Serious illness:- a complicated but much better form of Critical illness cover ( covers many more illnesses)
Income protection:- The best, unless you get full sick pay for ever! Pays out if you are off work ill until you are better or retire, the best types are own occupation, index linked, guaranteed premiums, this one is properly complicated and you do not really want to be buying this off the internet on your own.
Unemployment cover:- worth thinking about especially if you have little or no savings and will not just walk in to another job. But quite expensive, pays out for 12 or 24 months.
Mortgage payment protection:- what the banks will try and sell you, pays out if you are ill for up to 12 months, can frequently do Income protection for same money!
Hope that helps a bit.
onomatopoeia said:
Stevemr said:
A good Broker will:-
(snip)
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
What insurance products might I need for a mortgage, aside from buildings insurance as the lender wants to be protected against their security burning down? I ask because I didn't use a broker and didn't take out any other insurance related to the mortgage, so I'm intrigued by this statement.(snip)
Give you proper advice on what insurance products you may or may not need, and obtain these from a large panel of different insurers.
Interesting about HSBC. I may give them a wide birth.
onomatopoeia said:
What insurance products might I need for a mortgage, aside from buildings insurance as the lender wants to be protected against their security burning down? I ask because I didn't use a broker and didn't take out any other insurance related to the mortgage, so I'm intrigued by this statement.
Life insurance - health insurance - sickness / time of work cover etcThe mortgage is not dependent on having them, but it might be a good idea to have some of these products depending on your personal situation. An IFA will surely be able to advise you on these.
essayer said:
onomatopoeia said:
What insurance products might I need for a mortgage, aside from buildings insurance as the lender wants to be protected against their security burning down? I ask because I didn't use a broker and didn't take out any other insurance related to the mortgage, so I'm intrigued by this statement.
Life insurance - health insurance - sickness / time of work cover etcThe mortgage is not dependent on having them, but it might be a good idea to have some of these products depending on your personal situation. An IFA will surely be able to advise you on these.
So far other than warning me off HSBC/Natwest I have heard little that has changed my mind.
If you are very clued up financially.
If you are working on a low loan to value.
If you have never had any credit problems at all.
If you are borrowing a very low amount compared to your income and have minimal outgoings/ no kids etc.
If you are not buying a property which is in any way unusual in terms of construction or title.
If you are happy spending hours chasing up lenders, or possibly taking time off work to go to the branch.
If you know from experience which lenders will act promptly, or which will take weeks to look at anything.
If you know that what you want is a 2 year fix over how ever many years, and have taken in to account all fees and reversion rates etc.
If you know which lenders are likely to offer good retention deals, or are likely to have a good reversion rate.
Then you are probably exactly what the banks are looking for and probably do not have any need for a broker.
My comments on insurance were aimed at the enquiry on that.
Good luck with your move.
If you are working on a low loan to value.
If you have never had any credit problems at all.
If you are borrowing a very low amount compared to your income and have minimal outgoings/ no kids etc.
If you are not buying a property which is in any way unusual in terms of construction or title.
If you are happy spending hours chasing up lenders, or possibly taking time off work to go to the branch.
If you know from experience which lenders will act promptly, or which will take weeks to look at anything.
If you know that what you want is a 2 year fix over how ever many years, and have taken in to account all fees and reversion rates etc.
If you know which lenders are likely to offer good retention deals, or are likely to have a good reversion rate.
Then you are probably exactly what the banks are looking for and probably do not have any need for a broker.
My comments on insurance were aimed at the enquiry on that.
Good luck with your move.
Stevemr said:
If you are very clued up financially. Reasonably so
If you are working on a low loan to value. 70%
If you have never had any credit problems at all. Never
If you are borrowing a very low amount compared to your income and have minimal outgoings/ no kids etc. Looking for 2.5x. I have kids
If you are not buying a property which is in any way unusual in terms of construction or title.
If you are happy spending hours chasing up lenders, or possibly taking time off work to go to the branch. Yes, I have rearranged my exisiting mortgae several time myself
If you know from experience which lenders will act promptly, or which will take weeks to look at anything. No I don't know this
If you know that what you want is a 2 year fix over how ever many years, and have taken in to account all fees and reversion rates etc. Fees, yes, fixed two years, perhaps, weighing up fixing for longer vs higher rate. Reversion rates are all listed on lenders sites. However I would change to a new product at this point anyway
If you know which lenders are likely to offer good retention deals, or are likely to have a good reversion rate. Again at the ned of the deal i will seek out a new product. I can also check out retention/remortgage deals from lenders
Then you are probably exactly what the banks are looking for and probably do not have any need for a broker.
Good luck with your move. Thanks, I may need it
If you are working on a low loan to value. 70%
If you have never had any credit problems at all. Never
If you are borrowing a very low amount compared to your income and have minimal outgoings/ no kids etc. Looking for 2.5x. I have kids
If you are not buying a property which is in any way unusual in terms of construction or title.
If you are happy spending hours chasing up lenders, or possibly taking time off work to go to the branch. Yes, I have rearranged my exisiting mortgae several time myself
If you know from experience which lenders will act promptly, or which will take weeks to look at anything. No I don't know this
If you know that what you want is a 2 year fix over how ever many years, and have taken in to account all fees and reversion rates etc. Fees, yes, fixed two years, perhaps, weighing up fixing for longer vs higher rate. Reversion rates are all listed on lenders sites. However I would change to a new product at this point anyway
If you know which lenders are likely to offer good retention deals, or are likely to have a good reversion rate. Again at the ned of the deal i will seek out a new product. I can also check out retention/remortgage deals from lenders
Then you are probably exactly what the banks are looking for and probably do not have any need for a broker.
Good luck with your move. Thanks, I may need it
Devil2575 said:
So far other than warning me off HSBC/Natwest I have heard little that has changed my mind.
Devil2575 said:
Interesting about HSBC. I may give them a wide birth.
So from the above information, provide by Mortgage Brokers, you've learnt that giving HSBC might be worth giving a wide birth. That information alone could have saved you months of grief.I don't think anyone would say that EVERYONE needs to use a broker, but for every one that doesn't, there are lots that do.
Sarnie said:
Devil2575 said:
So far other than warning me off HSBC/Natwest I have heard little that has changed my mind.
Devil2575 said:
Interesting about HSBC. I may give them a wide birth.
So from the above information, provide by Mortgage Brokers, you've learnt that giving HSBC might be worth giving a wide birth. That information alone could have saved you months of grief.I don't think anyone would say that EVERYONE needs to use a broker, but for every one that doesn't, there are lots that do.
Actualy my existing lender is looking pretty good as well and I know they are decent.
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