Broker doesn’t have the cheapest mortgages

[Worieddd]

We are coming up to remortgaging and rather than going with Nationwide again are wanting to get a good 5 year fix that we can port (probably going to move next year).

Have been recommended London and Country lots however whilst I’m inputting our details onto their site the mortgage products it is coming up with are nowhere near as good as what some banks are offering.

Will they have more if I hit apply or am I wasting my time? Shall I just apply to a bank directly? First Direct and Santander have excellent rates but how do I know they will accept us?

Financially we are absolutely fine but we do have childcare costs and a buy to let property

You wouldn't lose out with L+C, they don't charge. You could point out that there are cheaper mortgages and see if they can match them?

I'm not sure if they're whole of market, I suspect not since they rely on the kickbacks from the mortgage companies, but you could challenge them and see what they come up with?

Definitely worth trying with L&C. But approach them with the best deal you have found yourself and ask them to see if they can find a lender to match it or beat it. They couldn't beat the switching rate NW had offered us last year so we stayed with NW. They were honest about it and said to us that we had a good deal with switch offer.

We are going through it with them at the mo. Is sounding promising so far. If you want to talk numbers I can share ours

It's worth saying that HSBC and by extension First Direct are one of the pickiest lenders out there. Great rates but they tend to to be very strict on affordability criteria which might catch you out if you have significant childcare costs.

I always use L&C and compare their rates using Moneysupermarket. L&C are whole of market for lenders that use brokers. In other words, they do not offer products from lenders that do not go through brokers. Maybe First Direct and Santander fall into that category or maybe you do not meet some criteria which you assume you do that those lenders are not coming up for you on the L&C website.

It is worth calling up one of the L&C brokers and ask them why they are not offering First Direct or Santander.

If L&C truly do not offer those lenders, you should go on MoneySupermarket to figure out the best rates and apply through the site: [https://www.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/]]. You will end up applying to the bank anyway but you will get the rate on the website.

You might not get as good rates going through the bank direct. Banks offer their best rates on Moneysupermarket because it is very transparent and they are competing against many lenders on there and so have to put their best rates on there. They may offer the same rates to walk in customers and they may not and going on that website lets you check.

PS I don't work for MoneysSupermarket but am a rate tart and get regular practice re-mortgaging every 2-3 years so got it down to an art.

Here is the link again: www.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/.

It goes without saying that you should not just look at the rate, but also the arrangement fee and any extras (like legal or valuation fees). Arrangement fees of £1,500 or more can really eat into any savings from a lower rate especially if the mortgage amount is relatively small. When comparing 2 products, you should add the difference in fees to the product which has more expensive fees to see how much more that increases the interest rate of that product over the 5 year discount period.

First direct do not use brokers, so you’ll only get their deals by applying to them direct. We have always used L&C but last time they couldn’t beat the deal First Direct were offering as we wanted a 10yr fix, they were still happy to give us some other options, so no harm in applying with them