So many of these companies… has anyone looked extensively into any of them?
I’ve got a while before i can next remortgage but would be good to know whos doing what any better than traditional brokers.
I don’t trust any of them enough to use them as yet so have always gone to see a financial advisor to sort my remortgages out in the past. Currently have four and a half years left on my current rate, so maybe by then they will be more established and I’d trust them more.
…Sneezy and Doc ? 
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Reminds me of a joke.
“Hey, Doc, where’s Sneezy?”
“Out the back feeling Grumpy.”
Sorry. Back on–topic. I remortgage next year. Interested to see if I can compare Habito (the only one of the companies you’ve mentioned that I actually recognise) with my excellent, free–to–me mortgage advisor.
Will be interesting to see if either throws up something cheaper that the other misses.
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That’s an oxymoron if ever I saw one. 
If it’s free to you, remember someone is paying them.
Saying that, we used habito, they were brilliant. All nicely handled online, with one person handling it all, it was free to us and they were paid £60 or £80 by the provider
I’m fascinated - where’s the oxymoron?
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My point was, their as good as your advisor. But with anything where commission is involved, do your homework too
Your obviously the world expert in remortgaging so why ask. 
I wasn’t trying to patronise you, but if your happy with your advisor of 20 years, why sell him down the river for a tech advisor
Back to the o.p. with Habito, everything was sorted very quickly as you could log in and upload whatever they needed rather than posting copies, other than that the whole process is still held up by the often snail paced mortgage providers.
We used Trussle for our first mortgage. Everything done online, with a couple of payments taken over the phone for valuations etc. The whole process was handled by two people and sorted really quickly.
They also continue to keep an eye on your rate too, to see if you can make savings elsewhere.
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Can I have it, please? 
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Does anyone research and book their mortgage on their own?
I recently went through the process of re-mortgaging, and I found that the broker (I tried a couple), could only get the same deal that I could find independently.
In fact, because it was with Nationwide who are offering £100 cash back on each mortgage account (I have 2 with them), I ended up being £200 better off by doing it myself.
When I checked with the broker, they couldn’t offer the £200 cash back.
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The broker I use shows me a huge list of deals from various providers. The time it would take me to find them myself wouldn’t be worth it - I value my time. I’ve never paid a fee for the advice I have been given but don’t be fooled, I know the broker makes a commission on each mortgage arranged. The person I use came highly recommended and I have also recommended them on to family and friends.
I find that there’s a lot to be said to be able to turn up at their desk and pester them, which isn’t as easy when calls/emails can be ignored. Just not sure I’m ready to give that up on something as important as my home.
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This might sound a daft question, but did you do the classic “comparison sites” and compare them with what your broker was offering?
I know brokers can get deals which may not be publicly available (or very difficult to find), so I’m not dismissing brokers at all (we used one the first time we moved… although that was a very bad experience!)
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Nope, I didn’t see the point. Having a broker do all the leg work for us was a godsend. Couldn’t think of anything worse than dealing with different people every step of the way, chasing up everything.
As I said above, my time is worth a certain amount of money and I didn’t feel it would work out better to do it myself rather than have a broker do it all.
It may work for certain folks, sure, and that’s great. But for us, it was much better to have a highly recommended broker do it.
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The first time we took out a mortgage, we went down the same route (using a broker) because it felt like a minefield.
With rates being so low for the past 10 years or so, and Nationwide offering market leading rates (for us anyway), it’s been far simpler (and more financially beneficial) for us to just go directly with Nationwide and do it all online (took 5 minutes).
If we were moving to a new provider, I’d have possibly used a broker.
From conversations I’ve had with Monzo… This could be easier for Monzo customers in future 
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When we first bought, we went to a broker.
We then remortgage after the two years, through the same broker, to another two year deal.
After that, we went back to the broker and moved to a five year deal. We could have saved a small amount by moving to a new provider but we were advised to stick with the same provider. So the broker made £0 out of that visit.
I really feel schools should teach about finances, especially rent and mortgages along with savings, loans, credit cards. But that’s another topic altogether.
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Any reason why?
Preach 
Yeah, the firm he is an associate of now charges a fee, which we would have had to pay had he arranged a new provider for is. By the time this was paid we would have saved ~£100 over the five years.
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I used Habito for my first mortgage. It was quick, simple and didn’t have any problems. The fear of long telephone calls about my finances never materialised. Sent them what they asked, they showed me a list of good options. I chose the right one. They applied for me on a Monday and had a full mortgage offer by the Wednesday (hats off to Atom for doing it, and the valuation, quickly too). Simple.
That being said, I think First Direct would have been cheaper based on my research (and Habito don’t cover First Direct), but it would have took longer to get my mortgage.
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