Not neccessarily so - rates are withdrawn, amended, changed and replaced with little notice. It would be a near impossibility for advisers to be aware of every single deal available, and there is certainly no software around that does this. Lenders have multiple channels though which they market their products, such as through intermediaries, through branches, through packagers to intermediaries, exclusives for certain intermediaries, deals for existing customers, deals for new customers who take out associated products such as bank accounts, deals through business partners etc etc etc. Your IFA will use all of the tools at his disposal which includes using specific mortgage sourcing software and I am sure that the deal he would have told you about would have been the been the most suitable to the best of his knowledge. IFA's and mortgage advisers are required to retain their research on file and justify their advice in writing.

Brian

However, when he told me it was the best deal on the market at the moment, that cearly was not true, it was the best deal he could offer me at that moment.

A good reason to avoid IFA's it seems...

There are a number of lenders who do not deal with intermediaries, or rather, do not pay any commission to intermediaries, principally Britannia, Yorkshire BS, First Direct and HSBC. If you don't want to pay your IFA a fee for his work, then he has to get paid somehow and will only be able to recommend those lenders (basically all apart from the ones mentioned) that will pay him for the work done. Independent Financial and mortgage advisers are not charities.

Brian

Hi, I have been talking to a friend of a friend, who is a IFA, about changing my mortgage to a better deal (just come off a 5yr fixed mortgage at 3.95%, so the move to SVR @ 7.09% is slightly painful!!!)

Anyway, he was steering me towards Woolwich tracker, which was 1,09% over BOE base rate for the life of the mortgage, no arrangement fees, and they would cover legal stuff..

All was going to plan, when he phoned me today to say they had pulled the deal.

As it happened, I bank with First Direct, and logged on this evening, to see what looks (to my untrained eye), a better deal, basically the same, but 0.79% about BOE base rate.

Has my IFA friend of a friend been steering me towards a something that is better for HIM, rather than better for ME? Or is there something I am missing about that First Direct deal. Clearly because I bank with them, the prospect of offsetting is appealing.