Below is my rant about a mortgage broker which i will call IMC for the purposes of my rant and advice.
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Why do they insist on trying to flog insurance products (mortgage protection life insurance, buildings insurance, serious illness cover, morgage payment protection) when all i want from them is mortgage brokering services?? I am very skeptical of them from my experiences thus far. They push you to meet with their life insurance person who gives a presentation that attempts to rubbish other products out there and use scare tactics to ensure you have cover for serious illness etc etc. I understand that these products are useful for some people. They promise to send you quotes the day after but don't send them for over a week hoping you have forgotten all about the requirement to get life insurance cover in place thus putting you under much more pressure near closing time thus making you more likely to go through them. Also, their mortgage protection life insurance quotes have no real detail about the plan offered. When contacting them about my loan offer recently they had neglected to contact me about the valuation which the bank put on the house. I presumed the valuation according to the http://www.scs.ie/ website plus rounding it up would be satisfactory as building cover but it wasn't. This is fair enough - it is up to the bank to insist on the amount which the house needs to be insured for. My problem is with IMC who failed to tell me (a) that i needed buildings cover and (b) the minimum cover required. I told the girl on the phone that I would have that insurance sorted and sent over to her - this took her by suprise and she started querying why i did not want to take out buildings insurance through them???? This is another example in my opinion of delaying / non-disclosure tactics designed to hold back on essential pieces of information in the hope that you will succumb to the last minute panic which can be resolved by IMC with the wave of a hand and a 'shout over to XYZ's desk' as they have put it.
All that said I think the did a good job on the mortgage front so far. I guess my advice to others is BUYER BEWARE, inform yourself of all requirements and shop around from an early stage.
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Why do they insist on trying to flog insurance products (mortgage protection life insurance, buildings insurance, serious illness cover, morgage payment protection) when all i want from them is mortgage brokering services?? I am very skeptical of them from my experiences thus far. They push you to meet with their life insurance person who gives a presentation that attempts to rubbish other products out there and use scare tactics to ensure you have cover for serious illness etc etc. I understand that these products are useful for some people. They promise to send you quotes the day after but don't send them for over a week hoping you have forgotten all about the requirement to get life insurance cover in place thus putting you under much more pressure near closing time thus making you more likely to go through them. Also, their mortgage protection life insurance quotes have no real detail about the plan offered. When contacting them about my loan offer recently they had neglected to contact me about the valuation which the bank put on the house. I presumed the valuation according to the http://www.scs.ie/ website plus rounding it up would be satisfactory as building cover but it wasn't. This is fair enough - it is up to the bank to insist on the amount which the house needs to be insured for. My problem is with IMC who failed to tell me (a) that i needed buildings cover and (b) the minimum cover required. I told the girl on the phone that I would have that insurance sorted and sent over to her - this took her by suprise and she started querying why i did not want to take out buildings insurance through them???? This is another example in my opinion of delaying / non-disclosure tactics designed to hold back on essential pieces of information in the hope that you will succumb to the last minute panic which can be resolved by IMC with the wave of a hand and a 'shout over to XYZ's desk' as they have put it.
All that said I think the did a good job on the mortgage front so far. I guess my advice to others is BUYER BEWARE, inform yourself of all requirements and shop around from an early stage.