[Bek+3]

We are looking to upgrade our 2 bedroom home to something bigger.

Quick back story... we don't want a mortgage with our current lender, they are hopeless and after 10 years we are happy to give them the flick.

We went and saw another bank, told him we want to move everything over to him inc 2 mortgages, 2 credit cards, our every day banking etc because we are sick of our other bank. We had valuations done on our 2 properties and now have pre-approval through them. Well, they have turned out to be useless too. The branch manager/owner wouldn't return my calls when I needed something done urgently. It took him 9 days to phone me back and me ringing 6 times and leaving urgent messages. We lost a house because of it and when he did call back, I laughed him out of his own bank.

So, we dodged a bullet there and have decided now to go through a broker to find us the best deal. We have an appointment with Aussie but I was wondering if there are any scams, hidden fees or other things that we need to be cautious of by going through Aussie? People seem to love them or hate them is the general feel I get. I'd like any tips or advice you can offer.

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by Bek+3: 04/02/2013, 01:36 PM

[*cough*]

I got my mortgage in December through Aussie.

It was painless; since then so many people have told me horror stories and I've handed my brokers details out everywhere.

One appointment, all paperwork done, a few calls and that was that.

No fees, they get paid by the bank and they disclose that to you.

I even got flowers and a house warming card, follow up call to check all my accounts were alright and a voucher for referring a friend.

[Bek+3]

Gee, it seems they went above and beyond. Like you even said, I just keep hearing horror stories though. Based on your post, it certainly can't hurt to give them a try.

[justthegirls]

It was a few years ago now, but I found Aussie kept trying to push their own products onto us. Ended up using Mortgage Choice as I liked our local broker through them better and they don't have their own products, and get the same commission regardless of who you end up going through.

[twinboys]

In Melbourne we used Affinity Mortgage brokers twice
here

It is a husband and wife team and the husband who is called Yong is a crack up - he is a Chinese bloke and he is lovely to deal with.

Our first mortgage - piece of cake and we used ING and loved the way it was set up for us.

Our second mortgage was a bit of a headache as we were originally going to need bridging finance to cover us between the 2 house settlements which ING cannot do so we ended up with Suncorp even though in the end we did scramble and find 20% deposit without having to do the bridging loan

I would recommend Yong again.

[Bek+3]

Thank you for the replies. Twinboys I'm not in Melbourne, what a shame!! They sound great.
On another note, that's a very good point about Aussie trying to sell their own products. I will walk in aware of that.

Thank you again.

[Madnesscraves]

I used Aussie for my first home. They did try push some products on us but we shut them down quickly and they didn't try again. We just gave them a flat dead state 'no' and refused to talk about it other than mortgage.

Otherwise, they were quick and efficient and got our loan sorted for us quickly.

Used them a second time round and they said errrr you can't afford it,

Went to our lender our loan was with and they said well der, of course you can afford it and fixed it up promptly for us and we were all sorted

[Redgumhoney]

I would try Aussie brokers, but if they don't give you the right answers try mortgage choice. My experience was that The Aussie broker said we couldn't purchase and needed to save for another six months, but mortgage choice found the right loan straight away by using existing equity in another property straight away, just a smarter broker I guess...good luck.

[Mistress_Mel]

Adding Smartline Mortgage brokers to the list....my Dad is a frachisee. They don't have any products to sell either.

[Escapin]

It really depends on the individual broker more than the company I think. Some are great, some are crap. If you can say whereabouts you're located, I'm sure someone can recommend one for you.