Gender bias in mortgage rates?

[Perry10]

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask you about an interesting topic. Do you believe there is a gender bias in getting good mortgage deals. Have you ever felt that you got stripped of a good deal because you are the darker/fairer sex? I personally don’t have such an experience but recently I came across an article, www.northwoodmortgage.com/mortage-questions/gets-better-mortgage-deal-men-women/, about this topic which caught my interest and I thought of discussing it in a forum. Please share your views and experiences if any on this. Let’s have a healthy and lively discussion.

Are you a journalist by any chance?

A good broker will source the best deals available given the applicant's personal circumstances. There is no gender bias in rate setting.

What the article is getting at is that if there is a reason for not being able to secure the best prime rates, then it must have something to do with gender. It is not a deliberate gender bias by the mortgage industry. It is totally down to an individual and their behaviour/attitude towards money management. However, in my experience as a mortgage broker, if there was ever a previously unknown problem with someone's credit score it was invariably down to a woman and catalogue shopping.

No, I'm not a journalist. I just found this article very interesting and though of sharing it here and knowing how you feel. Thank you Sunseed for posting your thoughts. Nice to see a mortgage broker commenting here, thank you so much.

It's not a 'gender bias' in mortgage rates. It seems to be making some sweeping generalisations about the differing attitudes of men and women to money and not sure that 'shop around for a good deal' is all that radical a suggestion. In the UK the whole mortgage industry is quite heavily regulated after the disastrous pre-crash great money giveaway & the lending criteria are pretty tight and fairly consistent. If a lender was adjusting their rates purely based on whether the customer was male or female I think they'd find themselves up before the ombudsman.