Getting a good deal on mortgages is not based on luck, as most people are wont to believe, but on research and hard work. You can end up saving loads of precious pounds by getting a cheap mortgage with terms that suit you perfectly. If you ask your building society or your bank for a cheap mortgage or re-mortgage deal, their limited range would act as a constraint for you. The following are the two options you have.
Option I – The Option That Costs Money – In this option, you can go for a broker who would cost around £400/$600. However, for that charge, the broker would comb through every possible and practical deal for you. You should know that there are certain mortgage deals which cannot be accessed through brokers but if you hire the right broker service, they would go through those as well.
However, the downside to this option is that it costs money but overall, on an annual scale, hiring such a broker would save you money. Also, there might be some deals of which the broker cannot handle the paperwork, in which case, if you decide to go ahead with the deal, you’ll be operating alone and still be charged a service charge for finding the deal for you.
Option II – The Free Option That Costs Time and Energy – This route has two parts. One, you hire a free broker and two, you additionally comb through the deals that might have been missed by the broker. This route requires hard work, time and energy but it is pocket friendly.
For hiring a free broker, you have many options. L&C (London & County Mortgages) have won many awards for their free mortgage services. They are specialist phone brokers and will check a wide variety of lenders for you. The biggest advantage is that L&C will help you with the entire process – form filing, support and information. They might inform you about the deals that they can’t seek for you, but there is no guarantee to that.
If you hire the free brokers, you will have to invest some legwork for finding the deals missed by the brokers. For this, you can explore the following options –
- Lenders Not Operating Through Brokers – These include Barclays Direct, Post Office, Tesco Bank, HSBC, Britannia, Yorkshire Building Society and First Direct.
- Lenders Not Wholly Operating Through Brokers – These lenders offer some deals through brokers and some directly, like Halifax and Nationwide. You can make use of Moneyfacts and Money Advice Service.
- Other Brokers’ Exclusive Deals – There are certain deals which are exclusively available from other brokers because there are times when these brokers might negotiate individual deals with the lenders.
You can check out this explanation of best mortgage deals by The Telegraph for some help as well.
