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Independent mortgage brokers are generally regarded as an excellent source of advice when searching for the right mortgage to finance or remortgage a property. Independent mortgage brokers are not tied to advising clients to use particular lenders and home loan products. Instead, they have access to all mortgage lenders and products available on the market.

In addition to independent mortgage brokers, there are tied mortgage brokers. Tied brokers are similar to independent brokers however, instead of having access to all mortgages available on the market they only have access to products from a select panel of lenders.

Mortgage brokers who work within a bank or financial institution are generally known as mortgage advisors. This type of broker will only offer advice on the home loan products made available by the institution they work for. Mortgage advisors therefore offer advice on the most limited range of products out of the three different types of brokers.

Some mortgage brokers, however, do not offer independent or tied advice and therefore provide an *information only* service. Information only mortgage brokers do not help their customers decide upon which mortgage products are best suited to their individual circumstances or financial situation.

Instead, information only brokers will usually offer a wide selection of mortgage products and will perform the administration functions required to process the application after the customers have chosen the products by themselves.

While this may seem strange at first, the main advantage to the customer of such a service is that the customers are normally not charged a fee. Customers can therefore benefit from using information only mortgage brokers by saving money.

The main disadvantage, however, is that the customer may not select the most appropriate mortgage product for their individual situation. This can result in the customer paying more in interest and fees over the life of the loan than they would for a more suitable product.

Individuals who wish to use information only mortgage brokers should therefore have a good knowledge of the mortgage market in order to ensure they choose the right products for their individual needs. If they do not then they should consider paying for advice from an experienced broker.

Additionally, mortgage brokers sometimes have access to products that are not available on the open market. These are known as *exclusive deals* and each of these deals will normally only be available to the clients of a few selected mortgage brokers. Customers who use information only brokers may therefore miss out on such mortgage products.

In all, when deciding whether to use information only mortgage brokers, people must decide whether they need independent advice, whether they wish to have access to the entire mortgage market, whether cost is a factor, and whether they want to risk not being made aware of exclusive deals.

If cost is not important and people believe they can choose the right mortgages without independent advice, they may wish to use the services of information only mortgage brokers. There are several thousand brokers in the UK to choose from.