| The Broker Strikes Back |
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| Thursday, 17 November 2011 14:13 | |||
The Broker Strikes BackI'm not really taking to this blogging business as quite as enthusiastically as I had anticipated but here goes another.
I have to say that life in financial services has been wholly crap for the last three years or so, the low interest rate arena we find ourselves in has not been that much help to the broker unfortunately. Coupled to that the dual pricing lenders and direct only deals that under cut the broker rates effectively have made many a broker redundant. There has still been business out there in the mortgage world but brokers have certainly had to diversify to survive. All of this is pretty obvious stuff really, especially if you are a broker yourself. Just lately I can sense a level of positivity coming from lenders about using brokers once again. Some that have offered direct only deals have now let us back into the fold (ie Woolwich), Santander (Abbey) have given certain brokers a blinding 2yr fixed rate to offer sub 75% LTV customers which you can't get on the high street. ING Direct have also come onto the panel of lenders I can use and their lifetime tracker really is very good indeed. As far as interest rates go I just can't see a big rise in the near future. Every now and then a member of the MPC declares its time for a rise but gets shouted down. The austerity measures that the government are putting in place will take longer to bite and I can see the Bank Of England holding rates steady for at least another six months. This makes a tracker (especially the ING deal) a good option at the moment. remember though folks all circumstances are different and the whole point of this message is "get advice", "talk to a broker". We do know what we are talking about. I have to say I'm cautiously optimistic about the future, for the first time in three years I have a decent pipeline of business and can confidently say I can offer clients the best deal possible without worrying about the competition from direct only lenders. 
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