Comparison site calls for lenders to support brokers

21 September 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

A spokesman for Moneynet.co.uk says it regularly refers business to brokers as many people still want face-to-face advice.

He says: “The mortgage market and the amount of business being written may only be a fraction of what it was back in the heady days before the banking crisis, but that doesn’t mean that the job of finding the right mortgage has got any easier.”

He says unlike savings accounts, personal loans or credit cards the answer isn’t as simple as referring to a best buy table on a comparison website or in the paper, although some lenders still launch attention grabbing interest rates, hoping that it will be sufficient to win custom from those who don’t take the time to shop around or use the services of an Independent Financial Adviser or mortgage broker.

He says: “Unfortunately a number of lenders continue to bypass the broker community and sell their products directly via branch networks or increasingly online.

“One of the biggest problems for consumers is working out which is the most appropriate mortgage based on the total cost, i.e. not just the interest rate but also the associated fees which can vary enormously between lenders and individual products.”

He says you can use some comparison websites to search for mortgages based on total cost, however many people still prefer to sit down face to face with an independent professional adviser to carry out the calculations on their behalf.

He adds: “We need to see more lenders supporting the intermediary market as there’s the danger that without it we will see a depleted broker market suffer further.

“Unfortunately for the consumer, it’s those very brokers that would be the first to point out the real cost of some of these attractive looking offers.”

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