Mortgages - which companies are worth going with?

[MamaGoingToStickWithThis]

I'm so rubbish at this sort of thing, but our "product" with the Halifax has just ended and I need to look around...there seems to be so many companies out there and I'm a bit baffled to be honest. Thought I'd ask on her as I ask everything else on here

Thanks.

Hi Mama,

We use an Independant Financial Advisory service when we re-mortgage. It does cost us £250 each time we remortgage, but the benefits are worth it as you can make major savings - and they have access to all the products and deals on the markets.
As example they told us we could have borrowed £10,000 last time we remortgaged and kept the same no. of years and reduced our payments at the same time. But the good - lower payment deal - is only for a couple of years - then you remortgage again.

I would speak to halifax first. Depending on your circumstances, they may be able to convert your rate to a new one, without the expense invloved with a totally new remortgage. Halifax have very competitive rates also, so you wont be paying over the odds.

I work in a bank and we always advise going to your exisitng lender first and asking what deals they have for existing borrowers you may have to pay arrangement fee for a fixed rate but no other fees and no hassle. If they do not offer what you want go to a broker/ Independent Financial adviser, Bradford & Bingley are brokers and are in most towns otherwise look in your yellow pages for broker/IFA but check if they charge fees for arranging it as there are many that dont as they get paid by the lender for the business.

Avoid the Abbey like the plague non existant customer service!

the nationawide gets good reviews I think.

We are with Abbey with their flexible mortgage - suited us very well because we are building an extension and it allows us to draw down money as and when we need it up to a pre-arranged limit. We can also pay lump sums in whenever we like.

The house we are trying to buy is mortgaged and insured with Abbey - and I have never had such a frustrating inefficient service trying to get an insurance quote from them. Hours on the phone waiting for an answer, promising to send forms that never materialised (twice) telling me thay couldn't give me a quote because they couldn't find anything close to mine or DPs jobs in their tick-box, saying 'oh put this or this' and then saying any claim would be invalid if we weren't accurate...awful awful, awfu.

Although I also had terrible service from Woolwich when a problem arose due to a ltter that never arived. I just couldn't get them to sort it out and they ended up ripping me off for £300.

There is a 2 year flexible offset mortgage at 4.99% out with FirstDirect (VERY easy to deal with ) atm.

We're just in the midst of arranging mortgage for new house with current lender, Nationwide. We went to financial advisor through Estate Agent we bought house through & they didn't do whole of market but covered quite a lot of lenders & actually recommended Nationwide. We had already done a bit of research & it was between them & Abbey for lots of reasons, glad we're not going with Abbey now.
Try moneysupermarket or moneysavingexpert sites for comparisons of similar mortgages. The only thing we haven't done is ask what benefits we'll get as existing customers & especially as mortgage is only 50% of purchase price. It's a bit of a minefield I was looking at one product yesterday, reasonable interest rate but fee's were 4 times what most lenders are looking for so the little you were saving in the 0.2% saving was more than swallowed up during the discount period.

Thanks all, I'll check those out.

we have used Nationwide for several years and various mortgages. Have always had a good deal and service.

Every few years we use an independant financial advisor to find us a good deal(totally free of charge!!)and changed to the Kent Reliance Building society a couple of years ago and haven't had any problems.
Have also had a mortgage with the Bristol and West who were very good and Abbey who I would NEVER recommend for anything at all!!!

Nationwide here too. Happy with them. ANd previously with Bradford and Bingley.

WE've just ended with Halifax and for once Natwest proved cheaper than most for us, as dp is a "private banking customer" and gets interest discount
I had a mortgage prev with natwest and while not always the cheapest their mortgage services have won awards.
Ring sround adn check out the Sunday times for weekly good deals
Halifax could not beat the discounted rate NW gave us

I would also check out some of the smaller places. For example we use Saffron Walden Building Society (who cover herts & essex), and when our discount period came to an end, THEY called us to offer a new deal

Have a look at the Motley Fool's Mortgage comparison pages , and ask on their Mortage Discussion Board . Motley Fool posters are a very friendly bunch: almost as good as Mumsnetters

Note they are very sceptical about "Independent" Financial Advisers.