If you need to remortgage, try going direct!

[98elise]

hman said:

With mortgage / insurance comparison sites I don't see the need for brokers anymore - any reasons why they should exist?

Mine charges me nothing, and has organised quite a few mortgages for me. He gets paid by the mortgage company. Saves me doing the work.

It's also been helpful when I needed a mortgage quickly. A comparison site won't tell me that. In that case I viewed on the Saturday, and by Friday the property had been surveyed and I had a firm offer in my hand.

[craigjm]

I have used a well known broker who frequents this place and through their panel of lenders they can get mortgages that are not available on the high street. If you have a run of the mill house and a normal PAYE job then they might not add as much value as to someone with a lease and self employed status etc but to say that they are a waste of time and pointless middle men is far from the mark.

[TheLordJohn]

Countdown said:

Apologies for being thick..... that sounds like extra work for the broker without any extra pay/commission?

I wasn't going to reply, but couldn't resist.
If I was a broker, and it wasn't going to make me money, I'd still feel a moral obligation to not fk somebody over to the tune of £25k and 8 years by showing no effort/willing to help them out.
Especially as they'd paid me already to get the mortgage in the first instance and I'd told them that one payment covers all future work for that mortgage.

Brokers get paid; they get paid by their customers, the banks or both.
They aren't doing it for free, that's for sure.

All in all, left pretty disappointed from almost the minute I'd paid the fee...

[Countdown]

TheLordJohn said:

I wasn't going to reply, but couldn't resist.
If I was a broker, and it wasn't going to make me money, I'd still feel a moral obligation to not fk somebody over to the tune of £25k and 8 years by showing no effort/willing to help them out.
Especially as they'd paid me already to get the mortgage in the first instance and I'd told them that one payment covers all future work for that mortgage.

All in all, left pretty disappointed from almost the minute I'd paid the fee...

I don't understand how he has f***ed you over. You paid him £X a couple of years ago to get you a mortgage, which he did. That single payment was a one-off fee for him getting you a mortgage (unless there was something contractual which said that he would also re-negotiate your mortgage once the initial period expired??)

So to ask again, other than maybe goodwill, what was in it for him to renegotiate on your behalf? Sorry, just re-read your post and you're suggesting he had a moral obligation. I doubt at that point he was aware that he could have saved you £25k from a simple phone call. This is going to cost him your future business and also any recommendations you have made so arguably he will suffer the consequences.

TheLordJohn said:

Brokers get paid; they get paid by their customers, the banks or both.
They aren't doing it for free, that's for sure.

If he hasn't done what you paid him for then sue the pants off him.

Edited by Countdown on Monday 1st May 13:12

[TheLordJohn]

He won't become aware he could have saved me 8 years and some money if he hadn't bothered making the call to find out...

I wasn't opposed to paying a fee, again, if necessary. But that's beside the point.
My point is he looked at the information I had given him on the application form and said he couldn't do anything to help.
I didn't do anything special. All I did was contact the same company he got the mortgage with for us. I'm sure he could have managed a phone call.

Obviously thought he knew better/couldn't be arsed.

I also am not suggesting he had a moral obligation. I am stating that if i was in his position I would have a moral obligation.
Not to mention the financial gain which would no doubt come of it, as alluded to in my previous response you've quoted.

[Classy6]

Just paid an IFA £250 to sort a remortgage for us, he got a kickback off the mortgage company too.

Out of curiosity and having a bit of free time I had a look around at deals after we'd signed only to find a number of better deals, including staying with our current lender. The other deal with HSBC who apparently IFAs don't deal with.

Ultimately I ended up finding a better deal ~0.3% less over the term and ~£40 cheaper monthly payment & £500 lesser arrangement fee. Because he had already applied for the original deal no refund on fee, yet said he would do all the work with our current lender because he could deal with them. He also 'thanked me' for the feedback because the deal I found should of actually shown up on the search?!
To my amazement he still got a kickback off our current lender only to do a rate switch that looks like it involves literally zero effort/paperwork to complete. Fuming.

I only blame myself however, I normally do everything myself and research it to death but work has been busy and the guy seemed decent/honest enough dealing with a few other questions I had. The deal he attained was better than the one we were on.. switching to variable but wasn't the best available which is what I'm paying for. Now I'm under the impression after numerous dealings with different IFA's they are just snakes in suits!

[DoubleSix]

Sure they weren't a restricted adviser?

[Classy6]

DoubleSix said:

Sure they weren't a restricted adviser?

Nope. Said he had access to the full market, showed me full market search on key features. Said he used trigold? or something, an engine all IFA's use. After I found the deal and confronted him, he apologised saying the deal I found should of shown up on the search but for some reason didn't?! Wouldn't of minded as much if there was some sort of genuine apology in the form of a refund etc but nothing.

[craigjm]

I'm not sure what people expect from brokers of any kind (not just mortgage). They are not magicians and are not knowledgable about every single product that is out there. They can access stuff which individual consumers cannot which may be helpful if you have a specific need and they will generally do all of the paperwork if you are short on time but that doesn't always mean they will automatically save you ££££. Every transaction is individual because of so many variables and what might work well for one will not necessarily for another. Morale of the story is that if you want the best deal do your own research and then see if a broker can beat it before you pay any fees.

[bigandclever]

TheLordJohn said:

He won't become aware he could have saved me 8 years and some money if he hadn't bothered making the call to find out...
I wasn't opposed to paying a fee, again, if necessary. But that's beside the point.
My point is he looked at the information I had given him on the application form and said he couldn't do anything to help.
I didn't do anything special. All I did was contact the same company he got the mortgage with for us. I'm sure he could have managed a phone call.
Obviously thought he knew better/couldn't be arsed.

This "hour and a half" you spent on the phone, I'm guessing you weren't just on hold or shooting the breeze, and were imparting all sorts of answers to all sorts of questions. Did the broker have all that information to hand?

[DonkeyApple]

hman said:

With mortgage / insurance comparison sites I don't see the need for brokers anymore - any reasons why they should exist?

For a vanilla loan they serve no purpose. The lender favours the insertion of a broker between them and the client primarily because it shifts the risk of mis-selling over to the broker. It is for compliance purposes that the rise of the middleman has been meteoric in the last decade.

They are still highly beneficial for complex debt requirements but not on the basis that they know something that it is impossible for you to know or find out but because their fee will be much lower than the cost of your time to carry out the work. If that is not the case then people would be better off doing it themselves.

What also doesn't help is that people do seem to prioritise finding the property ahead of arranging the required finance which pushes more people into feeling they need to pay for the faster solution of hiring an application clerk. It would be a far better market if people secured the finance side ahead of the time pressured house selection aspect.

[TheLordJohn]

Bump

[tleefox]

craigjm said:

I have used a well known broker who frequents this place and through their panel of lenders they can get mortgages that are not available on the high street. If you have a run of the mill house and a normal PAYE job then they might not add as much value as to someone with a lease and self employed status etc but to say that they are a waste of time and pointless middle men is far from the mark.

Agree with this.

I've used a broker for a number of years who before that my father used for a number of years. He has helped me through equity releases, bridging loan on a dilapidated property that no high street bank would touch, short term development loans, and some "normal" mortgages where his rates have been far better than anything I can find on the interweb, normally with small lenders I've never heard of.

Horses for courses.

[TheAngryDog]

tleefox said:

craigjm said:

I have used a well known broker who frequents this place and through their panel of lenders they can get mortgages that are not available on the high street. If you have a run of the mill house and a normal PAYE job then they might not add as much value as to someone with a lease and self employed status etc but to say that they are a waste of time and pointless middle men is far from the mark.

Agree with this.

I've used a broker for a number of years who before that my father used for a number of years. He has helped me through equity releases, bridging loan on a dilapidated property that no high street bank would touch, short term development loans, and some "normal" mortgages where his rates have been far better than anything I can find on the interweb, normally with small lenders I've never heard of.

Horses for courses.

The well known broker I used on here whose username is an abbreviation of a popular lunch time meal got me out of the st with I needed a mortgage. I had just changed jobs, albeit with a pay rise on basic, but pay cut due to no O/T and he got me a great deal. I will always use him for our mortgages as I see no reason not to.