Below are the emails between my solicitor and myself re Switch and Save.
I didn't proceed with them.
Coff,
Initial enquiry.
Hope you are well. I was looking for some advice. I know you are not mortgage advisors but was wondering if you had heard of this crowd called 'Switch and Save'. I don't know if it's a con or legit. I received the email below and I have been speaking with them on a number of occasions. They are offering to move my mortgage from CAM where I am currently paying over 6% interest to a new lender at 2% reducing my monthly payment substantially.
All this for a total fee of Euro 450. Sounds too good to be true but in today's climate could well be legitimate.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Reply
I have never heard of this company.
You should querie three things:
1/ who is the new lender? Can they give the names of the banks they work with?
2/ total costs of switching the mortgage over to the new lender (ask them to give you a breakdown) as this transaction is costly, it includes a new set of deeds (notary fees), registration of the new deeds (registry fees), the broker's fees, etc.... Normally what they do is they add this to the amount of the mortgage that you would be switching over, so you don't really know how much all this is.
3/ Is this going to affect the length of your mortgage (ie. more years)?
At the end of the day, it is very simple, no one gives anything for free (specially not banks!) so you should really read all the small print to avoid ending up paying more than what you are now.
Best regards,
PD: this brokerage company is more than likely completely legal, these companies wouldn't take any risk this way. They make their money by telling you how beneficial it is going to be for you, but from my experience, once you add everything up (see point 2 and 3 above) it ends up costing you quite a lot more. However, if the current mortgage represents a real burden and you need to lower the monthly repayments, this could be an option (even if it is not the most cost effective in the end).