When you need a mortgage, you take advice, arm yourself with a lot of information including are in a position to choose a lender including the mortgage product which best suits you.
Or are you? Where do you start?
There are literally thousands of different mortgage products available at any 1 time. Where do you start to look for the 1 that is right for you? Of course you could walk down the high street calling in at the various bank or building society branches including ask for their advice. Do do not forget that the may not necessarily be completely unbiased advice as there just may be a vested interest in steering you towards 1 of their own products, even if the advisory service appears to be separate from the prime lending function. additionally it may be surprising to learn that not all the lenders’ products could necessarily be mentioned as many are only made available through a particular accredited network of ‘introducers’.
There are companies advertising details of mortgages on the net with their own web site including you might trawl through these to check terms including rates. It might be a pretty time consuming task, however, not only to find the right rate but additionally to establish the conditions relating to any particular product. Conditions which you now realise are of some importance in making your decision but which may not be immediately apparent from the publicity material pertaining to the proposed lender. After all, most people will not know what is relevant and, therefore, what to look for. Assuming you are lucky enough to land on the ideal product for you, you have to be aware that you may be charged a fee for actually placing the business. the is not unreasonable, after all, a service is being provided. The normal fee will be to a maximum of 1% pertaining to the loan facility but may vary according to how much work is carried out on their behalf.
You may feel, if you are going to pay for a service, you might just as well engage a particular adviser or introducer to trawl the data for you. In the context we are not talking pertaining to the adviser employed by the lender. Broadly speaking, advisers may be divided into 2 categories, the I.F.A. (Independent Financial Adviser) including the independent mortgage adviser or broker.
The Independent Financial Adviser
Controlled under the Financial Services Act 1986 including additionally under the conduct rules of 1987 they are compelled, at the time giving investment advice to disclose the capacity in which they act, for example, for a particular insurance company. They are empowered to give advice on including sell, regulated products such as endowments, pensions, investments etc. including many link the with advice on mortgages. They could be registered with the Mortgage Code.
Independent Mortgage Adviser
At the present time the independent mortgage adviser is under absolutely no statutory regulation, but by far the majority subscribe to the Mortgage Code. the lays down certain procedures relating to conduct including advice which must be adhered to. Many lenders could only accept introduced business from those who are registered on the Mortgage Code Register of Intermediaries. In order to be registered the adviser (or firm of advisers) must have a current consumer credit licence from the Office of Fair Trading, professional indemnity insurance including they must additionally give a particular undertaking to abide by the mortgage code in their dealings with the client. the is designed to protect the borrower as it sets out minimum standards which both mortgage lenders including intermediaries have to meet.
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