Why Are Our Services Free?

We believe in our ability to get the best outcome for our customers by matching them to the right mortgage broker for their specific needs. We’ll explain how we do this.

First things first – we want to help as many people as we can

At Online Mortgage Advisor we believe in our ability to get the best possible outcome for all of our customers. So, rather than just helping those willing to pay for the service, we want to connect with as many people as possible.

Helping people get a mortgage to buy a home should never be an ‘exclusive’ service. If someone approaches us for help then it’s our mission to make sure they get the assistance and guidance they need.

Why we’re unique in the mortgage industry

We recognise that everyone’s mortgage needs will be different – whether it’s your deposit size that’s proving an issue, you’re buying a non-standard construction property or you have a particular type of bad credit.

Whilst there are significant benefits to seeking professional guidance it’s not as simple as just hiring any type of mortgage broker and hoping you’ll get the outcome you need.

If anything, this could cause more harm than good.

What you need is for someone to do the hard work for you and filter out all the brokers who don’t have the experience or knowledge to help with your specific mortgage requirements – this is where we can help!

Our unique mortgage broker-matching service is completely free to use and is designed to match you with the right advisor who has the exact expertise you need.

All the mortgage advisors we work with are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and vetted by our team before we agree to triage our enquiries to them to make sure they have the correct level of experience to handle our customer’s needs.

Will the mortgage broker charge a fee?

Yes, it’s possible but this really depends on the complexity of your specific case and the amount of time your broker will need to spend making sure you get the mortgage approval you need.

A mortgage lender will pay the same amount whether your mortgage is straightforward or not, so, if a broker has needed additional time to get your mortgage over the line then they will likely charge a fee (typically a % of the amount borrowed). This is generally seen as standard practice across the mortgage industry.

The mortgage brokers we work with must adhere to our fair fee policy which means they will have strict limits on what they can charge and will refund any costs you have incurred if they don’t get your mortgage approved.

So, whilst our broker-matching service is free, the mortgage brokers we work with will naturally want to charge a fee to cover the work they do for you. But, in the long run, this fee will be worth it if you secure the mortgage you need at the best interest rate and terms available.

How we make our income

We have a wide range of brokers in our network and we work with them in different ways. Some pay us a share of revenue on completion of your mortgage, membership fees, or referral. Others pay an up-front fee to be introduced to customers they’re best qualified to help.

The business model we apply to each partnership is chosen on a case-by-case basis, based on what is the most likely to be successful and maximise mortgage approvals.

Why mortgage brokers want to work with us

We’ve been the leading introducer to many mortgage brokers since 2013 and are a great source of customers to help their businesses grow without having to engage in any direct marketing campaigns themselves.

We know the mortgage firms we work with are the best in the industry at what they do – finding people the right mortgage deals to suit their circumstances.

As an introducer, we’re helping the brokers focus on the bit they do well, rather than have them spend lots of time and money on attracting customers themselves – we’ll do all that for them because that’s what we’re best at!

Of course, all of this doesn’t just happen by chance. We’ve spent a decade refining who we work with, finding the best experts in the UK (and the world) to make sure our customers have a better experience and a higher chance of approval than anywhere else.

Marketing costs money – lots of it. We’ve invested millions on this side of our business, and have an incredible team helping us be the voice of the industry to make sure more customers find us and get the right help, rather than ending up with a less experienced advisor and having to compromise on their plans / get declined unnecessarily.

It’s not simple or cheap to recreate (many try!), and whilst we continue to dominate the top of the search engines for mortgages (and personal finance with our other brand – Online Money Advisor), our partner firms gratefully don’t need to make that level of investment to benefit from what we do.

So, we help both the customer find the right mortgage and the brokers we work with to expand their business. In the end, the customer gets the mortgage they need, the mortgage broker gets paid by the lender and we get a fee from the broker – everyone’s a winner!

Over 450,000 customers helped so far

Since 2013 we’ve helped over 450,000 customers find the mortgage they need to buy the property they want – all whilst offering our broker-matching service for free.

At the same time we’ve created a wonderful opportunity for mortgage brokers far and wide to expand their own businesses by absorbing all the marketing, research, development and distribution costs and wrapping it all into one simple introducer fee.

We are proud to say that this has led to the growth of the specialist mortgage market and to the size and scale of many specialist advice firms across the UK, we’re now working with over 30 mortgage firms and 150 advisors.