Remortgage Advice Needed please

[Kimbo21]

Hi
I am looking to remortgage and have spoken to a couple of independent mortgage advisers who are saying that I have to pay them a fee to file my mortgage application (just the application) as well as a fee following a mortgage offer. Now, I fully understand that I have to pay a fee if my mortgage application goes through, however I am slightly loathed to pay £199 for an application that could be rejected, meaning I am no better off as far as my mortgage goes, but will have lost £199. The advisers say that they only charge when they are confident that the mortgage offer will go through - I am not sure if this is normal procedure for mortgage applications. I can do it for free myself online (which I have tried) but the application has not been agreed on affordability reasons, The advisers have said they can find me offers which will be accepted. HELP please - much appreciated.

Can you try other advisors? Mine didn’t charge me as she earned commission on it.

Hi OP, have you tried London and Country?

I've remortgaged twice with London & Country and have got really good deals both times. First time I was also on a visa that was close to expiring and no one would touch us!

It's funny you mention London & Country - I have just been reading advice from moneysavingexpert website and they recommend them.
I will try to seek their advice. Many thanks for replying to my post.

Are you sure that these are specifically broker fees and not the mortgage provider's application or valuation fees?

I can think of a few providers who still charge application/booking fees which are non-refundable. It's also normal practice to pay your valuation fee upfront at application.

Yes - they are specific to the broker. They charge £199 for 'helping' with the mortgage application, then another £375 following an accepted offer.

London & Country are not the only Fee Free mortgage adviser.
They do dominate/take a big chunk of the market.
But If you have something a bit different about your case, such as a couple applying in one name only; Adult relative to live in the property also; High Child care costs; significant Benefit Income; New/changing employment; Self employed or a Contractor; Low credit Score; Bad credit history as examples, then an Adviser that can give you the "time" that you need to get you the best result as opposed to the quickest/simplest solution (not necessarily the best), may be of more value to you? Best wishes & good luck

Agree with PP London and Country are NOT the only fee free whole of market adviser... there are plenty of smaller local often family firms that are losing a lot of business to companies with big marketing budgets :-( but provide a friendly honest face to face service.

Yes, my broker is a local independent who previously worked for a small local firm. No charges, she got paid commission, around £150 I think.

Ask friends/family for recommendations.

I've today received my remortgage offer from the Halifax .
Didn't cost me a penny .
In fact I get £750 cash back from them .
No idea why you be expected to pay they should be falling over themselves for your business ?

Tinker Hopefully your Halifax offer is the best on the market. As you no doubt checked the 500+ offers available from other providers I'm sure you're confident. A small % can cost you much more than £750.

I agree that there are still fee free providers

In fact if they are offering a £750 'head turner' I'd be suspicious.

Well the offer we got from London and Country was shite and not what I asked for (I wanted a Bank of England lifetime base rate tracker and they offered something that was a few years discounted off the banks SVR).

I found my own deal direct with HSBC and considering that this was a few months prior to the base rate dropping to 0.5%, we've benefitted massively from paying less than 1% pa interest for the last few years.

Congrats on getting the deal you wanted Barbara !

As for Dontallow ..... I did get the best deal for me . Of course I checked other deals ! Do you actually think I picked this one because of the £750 cash back
Because I run my finances well I was able to confidently source a great high street deal .... and yes the banks actually do want the business of good customers . Anyway I get to buy a new purse with the cash back ( off to buy a new Audi now but equally excited by the free pen !!)

Tinker glad you're so cocksure and confident