Do you always use a mortgage broker?

[CrapBag]

Currently selling our house and going to be buying as well. Our current mortgage provider has told us what we can borrow and what rates are but I have looked on money supermarket and have seen better interest rates although I can't guarantee they would accept us, although I don't think it would be a problem. I spoke to or adviser on the phone and he said stay with our current provider (nationwide) as they aren't the worse ones out there.

Would you shop around yourself (and if so where?), stick with your current provider or go to a broker? What have you done in the past?

No never.

In the process of buying our last house, we approached a broker who was very helpful. I found a capped mortgage with the Co-op that he couldn't match. That house then fell through. For the house we bought, I found a tracker offset with First Direct. Again, he couldn't match it.

I would see one again but also do your homework. Money Saving Expert, Money Supermarket and Motley Fool are all good sites. Just googling chucks stuff up too.

First Direct are the absolute nuts though so have a look at their rates.

Best of luck.

I researched my own mortgages but useful to have a broker to push for you provided you don't pay them

Yes. I researched first and then checked what he suggested after.

He had access to non high street deals and also some fantastic recommendations. Has literally saved us thousands.

First Direct have been coming up on some of my searches actually so good to hear they are recommended.

How do you see them and not pay them though?

How much do they normally charge?

I paid mine £199. They will also get a % from the bank when mortgage goes through. The headline rates often look good but the fees can make them very expensive. Also you can wait longer to get an agreement from them. The broker can have better contact process and negotiate extensions, shorter terms etc.

Broker was very quick. They took a percentage of the rate I'd have had have paid to take the mortgage out anyway.

I've recommended ours to several people saying they can see what he says and chose whether to accept or not. They all have!!

We paid a broker to get us a mortgage in the midst of the credit crunch and we couldn't get any lender to touch us - it was £300 and at the time I had one late payment which really screwed up our position. That fee though has bought his services for good and he's now sorted a brilliant rate on our new purchase - and will continue to work for us in perpetuity. I have double checked rates and we are going to be paying a good 0.05 percent less than anything I could find so would recommend him in particular, happy to share info over PM if you are interested, but I'm not sure I would have bothered if we had been able to get a mortgage easily the first time around.

We used a broker as the property we were buying was of non-standard construction which limited our lenders. We chose a company who professed to be specialists in non-standard build lending. At the start they assured us (because our credit ratings were all fine and we had a good deposit) that it would be no problem so we paid their £500 thinking we'd be getting the best advice and a guaranteed service - we thought you get what you pay for and we wanted no hassle.

It was a nightmare. They got our details wrong, messed up our paperwork and then the icing on the cake, the lender they recommended wouldn't offer on properties of that nature. Wasted 6 weeks and put the whole deal in jeopardy.

We went direct to a smaller lender after that and had to rush through the application (the sellers were getting antsy at the delay). Once we'd secured direct and finialised everything we went back to the broker (we didn't want to complain during the transaction in case they put the boot in). We did eventually get our money back, but we had to threaten the ombudsman.

Go direct would be my advice.

London and Country are free. They make their money from lenders referral fees and are pretty good too.

If you've a very straight forward situation you may not need one. However, not everyone is straight forward so they can be worth their weight.

Never. My friend is a broker and she says she is most helpful to people with more complicated finances and that you might as well deal direct is you have a straightforward employment situation and don't want the maximum of what you can borrow etc.

Just deal direct with First Direct? They are fabulous and we moved all our accounts to them after doing a remortgage with them years ago. They were fantastic when we moved last year and even paid all our fees for us.

No never. I do my own research (charcol online is a useful website) and then apply.

Another vote for London & Country as free brokers with access to some exclusive deals you won't find elsewhere.

I've always done it myself. I think brokers are more useful when you have more complicated requirements though, like pasta says.

Some providers don't pop up on comparison sites. Britannia might be one from memory? (It's been a while since I did this!) Money Saving Expert is always worth consulting before you start.

Yes every single time, same broker has arranged approx 18 mortgages for DH and I over the years. She is worth her wait in gold and has access to deals not available on the high street. We have paid her nothing, she gets paid by the lenders.

I've only bought one house but had two mortgages on it - we used an IFA each time. As above, he found deals we couldn't find on our own and as he gets paid by the lender (he's whole of market) we didn't pay him anything.

Our first mortgage was interest-only with the difference between IO and repayment going into a maxi ISA - our IFA managed the ISA account (with Fidelity) and once we moved to a repayment mortgage for the same price as our previous IO deal we decided to continue the ISA as a long term savings plan and our IFA continues to manage it. Seems to be going well so far; it's never been worth less than what we've paid into it (which can be a risk, but a risk we felt worth taking).

On the subject of First Direct, never had a mortgage with them but my current account and instant saver are with them and I've had no problems whatsoever. Unlike Smile and Barclays.

Thanks for the advice.

I phoned a few before and the ones who aren't local to me said I wouldn't be ableto use them because it would be a xx mile trip for me so I am guessing g you need to use a local one?

The cheapest one I did find was £195, the other s were all quite a bit dearer and none take their fee from the mortgage provider, which is a shame as it would have been good to see one as I know we wouldn't be losing anything by seeing them and potentially not taking up one of mortgages they find.

I think its a straight forward situation. We are selling a shared ownership property and buying on the open market. Decent deposit, been to!d the Max we can borrow from Nationwide although I don't know if they will all be the same as they were willing to take my benefits I to account and I don't know if they all do. Have also been told we can port the mortgage we have and have another run alongside it but I don't know exactly how this works with getting so emoney back from our deposit etc so may just redeem and take out a new one. Depends on rates. Currently on 2.5% but would go up when rates rise.

I just googled for IFAs in my area and got the chap I use; he came to us rather than the other way round. He works under the Positive Solutions brand - www.thinkpositive.co.uk/

i have just re-fixed with nationwide, which i have done twice before. have to say that nowhere could do much better- we have 3 tranches of mortgage and they gave us £300 for doing it online! i would do it quickly and fix for as long as you can!

London and country are nationwide and advise on the phone

We tried using Alexander Hall but had a TERRIBLE experience. We almost lost the house we wanted to buy because of an eight week delay caused by poor advice from them. We ended up finding our own mortgage directly and only wish we had done this in the first place.

I have had a brief look at Britannia, Nationwide and First Direct.

Nationwide are coming out the best for the LTV with fees for a 5 year fixed rate, given that we are current customers.

It is a close call between them actually. Got a rate of 3.19% for 5 years with a £99 fee which I am not sure could be beaten! Have found better rates but they come with massive fees.

A mortgage broker specialising in professionals tried to charge me 1% of my purchase.

I did the deal myself for £399.

If you're salaried and only borrowing 3x or 4x income, it's easy.

From friends, i've heard it's a bit trickier if you're self-employed or have a career in something like medicine where you'll be minted in 15 years, but are relatively skint today. Even then, they have found high street banks like Halifax or Handelsbanken more helpful than London & Country, who are very popular on MN and MSE but who shit themselves if you want to borrow more than £500k (a very ordinary level of mortgage debt for professional households).

Another vote for First Direct. We already used them for banking, then sought out a mortgage with them when we moved recently.

The only downside was that we didn't have a designated person dealing with things, so you have to explain everything from the start each time to you phone. But they're very helpful and polite and sent things out in the post pretty quickly when we needed them to.