Mortgage/IFA Advice

[callmewhatever]

Hi all, me and DW are at the stage where we are looking seriously at mortgages. We will be first time buyers and are saving for a deposit.

I have read a lot of other threads and most advice says that the best thing to do is to go to a broker who can search a variety of mortgages. Is this the best thing to do rather than going direct to a bank? I have looked online and see London & Country are fee free, has anyone got experience using them and is it easy doing everything by phone?

Sorry for all the questions. Thank you in advance.

I used London and Country for my very first mortgage and thought they were great. I've not used them since as I've always found better deals which are not available through brokers (First Direct for example don't deal through brokers). In fact, now I remember, I did use try to use them for my second mortgage and it was my London and Country broker who recommended my first First Direct mortgage to me even though he knew he would lose my business by doing so.

Thanks for the reply. Am I right in saying that it is all dealt with over the phone?

We're using them at the moment. Did get a recommendation from them last time we remortgaged too but it was the same as our current provider so must remortgaged with them.

You do all the initial consultation / they take details etc over the telephone, but after that its by email, text and through their internet based case management system. You'll have to provide all the paperwork etc so that has to be done by post etc. They take some of the hassle out of the transaction. The most useful part is narrowing down the search criteria - i.e. they will do the affordability checks / income checks etc to see which lenders are likely to offer to you.

It still pays to do your own research (i.e. using the internet comparison sites to see what offers are available) then compare what L&C can offer.