Looking for a mortgage but worried about Monday’s (8 October) Panorama program? You shouldn’t let this put you off. Whilst there were clearly some concerning aspects in this program bear in mind that the cases shown were at the extreme end of the mortgage market – some people who clearly had insufficient income to pay for the mortgage in the first place and some people who had had previously built up significant debt problems in the past.

And remember there were problems with brokers involved but not all brokers are like that. If you already have a mortgage and are looking to remortgage, then you could well be able to find the right one yourself. And there are lots of tools available on the net to help you work out the costs involved and whether it is worthwhile remortgaging.

If you are looking to buy for the first time then do some research yourself. Again there are mortgage calculators on the net that can help you work out if you can afford the mortgage that you will need to get the house of your dreams. You can also get help working out the costs involved, like stamp duty. Some calculators can even check what will happen to your monthly payments if interest rates change in the future.

The best thing to do is to use a mortgage comparison site. One that is independent of all lenders. One that gives you mortgage guides. One that searches the whole of the mortgage market. One that shows you the true cost of the mortgage that you are looking at which includes not the monthly payments but also all of the fees that apply.


Francis Ghiloni www.mform.co.uk