B&B - Bad Concept!!! (Bradford & Bingley)

Member Name: ordy

Product:	Bradford & Bingley
Date:	05/10/01 (704 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Large Choice

Disadvantages: Expensive service

I am a shareholder in Bradford & Bingley. I used to have a savings account when it was a Building Society, but then it demutualised and floated on the stock exchange and we all got a nice bundle of shares. I was very happy!

As a shareholder I decided that, as I was seeking to remortgage my house I would approach them for a quote. I had a spare afternoon so I went to the Altrincham branch.

The staff were very friendly & helpful (typically northern!). I was able to see an adviser at half an hours notice (Nationwide I had to book a week in advance!!)

The advisor was well presented, friendly and knowledgable. She took all my details and input them into her laptop which quickly gave a large number of quotes. So far so good.

Then came the crunch. Bradford & Bingley have become a mortgage broker. The theory is that they will search all lendors and find the best deal. For this they wanted to change me about 1000GBP (my mortgage is quite 250k so probably on the large side). I fancied a 5 year fixed rate (being risk averse with such a big loan!) and they quoted me 5.79% fixed. Not a bad rate I thought, but I didn't like the fee they wanted to charge!)

Then I searched the internet - there are a number of sites that are useful, but I quite like moneyextra.com - powerful and VERY informative. They also came up with 5.79% - with various lendors including the Woolwhich. Well I bank with Barclays who now own the Woolwich, so I popped down and got the same rate for free - saving the 1k charges. Barclays even filled in the forms for me just like B&B promised to do.

Other irritating aspects to B&B include :-

1. Poor website. Very slow. If you click on the "new mortages" section it tells you that you are not authorised to view that page.

2. Website does not clearly explain about the fee. It is mentioned in the small print but the % is not specified.

3. They do not make clear if they offer th
eir own mortgages any more.

To sum up - the concept sounded good - check all lendors to provide the best deal - but B&B simply cannot do this in a cost eficient manner.

Summary: