Anyone used one recently? Do they actually manage to provide a better deal than high street options?
No, but we will be in the future. The problem with mortgage lenders today is that they are there to cater to the lowest (fix£ing thick) common denominator.
When we sell our house later this yr, swmbo and I will turn a tidy profit for our efforts, but in doing so we have amassed around £50k of unsecured debt. Meaning in the short term, cash flow is rather restricted.
Last year we flipped our mortgage deal and looked to borrow the extra £50k to secure our debt and buy us breathing space. I had a gobsmackingly painful 45min conversation with some obnoxious little turd (doubtless a 17yo on £15k) who wanted to know what each of the loans “was for” and hence whether it qualified as something that could be rolled into a mortgage.
I tried (and failed) to explain that the borrowings weren’t “for” anything. Rather that swmbo and I earn a certain amount per year, but house renovation + living > income, therefore borrowing took place. But, because I couldn’t point to either say, a car, a holiday, or some bricks arranged into an extension type configuration and tell him that was what the money was for, he wouldn’t let me roll it into a mortgage.
In the end I concluded it was easier to get a better paid job rather than try to explain myself to these cretinis. But in the future, I am planning to go to a nice chap I used to play rugby with, explain what I want the money for and how much, and then let him take care of all the tedious bit in between. A few percentage points in interest will be a small price to pay to dodge a jordie call centre.
