What's the advantage of using a mortgage broker?

[Blinkyblink]

Trying to decide if worth the £295 fee

Thanks

i've never bothered and always found the process straightforward. I just get the top table mortgage rates and choose from there. rates are so low anyway. I dont know if its lost me money, tbh, but I dont think so.

I thoroughly recommend using a broker, but don't pay one. They shouldn't charge you as they get commission.

They are especially useful if your circumstances aren't entirely straightforward, eg new job, self employed, mat leave, have other properties, are planning to do work on the house etc etc.

Otherwise, yes, you could do it yourself.

We used London and Country last time and they messed up and almost jeopardised our move.

I used one in the past (though sale eventually fell through so didn't go through with the mortgage) - they were free and would have taken their fee from the commission from the mortgage provider somehow, but they still had access to the full market, not tied to anyone.

Then more recently I used another who charged upfront; I'm not sure they had any better deals than the other one, but were more closely involved already with the shared ownership side of things, so it was just easier to stick with them.

The biggest difference I think, compared to friends who found their own deals through banks, was that I didn't have to go through long interviews about what I could afford - my friend had to have an hour long meeting where they went through all their expenses, asked about them, played out various scenarios, asked how they'd deal with that, etc. I had nothing like that - just gave my bank statements to the broker, and that was it. Of course the different circumstances might account for it - I have no dependents, no partner, etc, so maybe it was easier to see my outgoings from my statement. But I'm also self-employed, which complicated things, so I was quite surprised when I didn't have to go through all that questioning! I assume it was because the broker did it all.

I'd have preferred to go to the one that didn't charge commission though, as £300 felt a bit steep to me.

We used a free one who got commission from the lender. The best bit about it was the time saved. It took forever on the phone to sort out last re-mortgage and that's when we stayed with the same lender. The broker found us a cheaper deal than I'd seen anywhere and the whole process has been really straightforward.

I used a broker cos I couldn't be arsed searching for a mortgage deal then deal with all the issues.....I was a easy case tho I told him what I wanted and for how long and he got on with it.....he got his fee from the mortgage company

We didn't pay ours a penny, he got us a great deal a ddid everythinggor us all I had to do was call once, e-mail bank statements and I.D and they was it.

yeppp!!
use one, they are fantastic. I have used one several times. They have access to basically a bigger market and better deals. They also do all the paperwork!

Ours was a similar fee. He was fantastic. Found a mortgage that I qualify for (many won't take immigrants), great interest rate, also sorted out our home and life insurance. I barely did any paperwork throughout the whole process because he did it all. Also he knew what we would qualify for before applying so there was no instance of hurting our credit by applying and being rejected for something.

I used London & Country in the past....they messed up and lost me the house I was trying to buy. I ended up taking them to the Financial Ombudsmen and got compensation (it was hard work) because they screwed up so badly.

I know use a private broker who charges £500 - worth every penny, got me a much better deal that I could going direct, and he sorts all the paperwork.