Review contents
L&C are becoming a bit outdated for modern times. They’ll find you the right mortgage, and for free, but it’s all phone based and time-consuming with scheduled meetings. The customer service is very inconsistent too. There’s much better options out there. It’s 2 stars from us.
Finding the right mortgage for you can be very difficult – there’s over 20,000 mortgages out there! That’s where a mortgage broker comes in, they do all the hard work for you and find you the best deal.
But every mortgage broker is not the same, some aren’t able to search the ‘whole market’ (that’s all of those 20,000 mortgages), and some charge some hefty fees. The quality of customer service varies a lot too!
So, what about L&C Mortgages? Well, they search the whole market and they're free!
They’re actually one of the biggest mortgage brokers in the UK, and have an enormous call centre to look after their customers – it’s all phone based, you can’t speak to anyone face-to-face, and you can’t chat to your mortgage advisor via live-chat on their website either (unlike more modern brokers like Habito¹).
They’re a bit hit and miss with customer service, which is important when getting mortgage advice – after all, buying your home is likely to be the biggest purchase of your life!
Let’s find out how London & Country compare and if they’re right for you.
Check out Habito – they're free, online, will get the best deal for you, and 5* rated!
Using London & Country is fairly straightforward, all you need to do to get started is either give them a ring, or head over to their website and fill in some details about yourself and the mortgage you’re after, then they’ll call you back to confirm your details and ask you some more questions – so you can’t handle your whole application online, it’s really all phone based, even though there is a website.
Once you’ve been assigned your mortgage advisor from L&C Mortgages, then it’s all over to them to find the right mortgage for you.
Because there’s no set processes for advisors to follow, and because it’s all phone based, each advisor effectively looks after you however they like, so there’s a wide range in quality of service and communication depending on what broker you get – it’s pot luck if you get good service or not, and that includes how long it takes them to find your mortgage.
Once they’re assigned to you, they should get back to you with the right deal for you, but again this varies, don’t expect it to be too fast, we’ve heard it take over a month before, and sometimes not at all.
When you’ve got your mortgage deal, and if you like it, they’ll apply to the mortgage lender (the company who gives you the mortgage) and handle all the paperwork for you – this is done by a ‘case manager’ and not your advisor, which is a new person who will manage the application with the lender – again the quality varies depending on which case manager you get.
But at the end, you (should) get a mortgage for your property! All the stress was worth it.
By the way, L&C just handles the mortgage. You’ll still need to arrange your own conveyancer or solicitor (to handle the legal side), and a building survey if you’re buying a home.
The good news is London & Country are free to use! There’s no fees to pay to get mortgage advice, unlike more traditional mortgage brokers who charge around £500.
They get paid by the lender (as all mortgage brokers do), when they find you a mortgage. Some just charge you extra too.
However, they’re not the only fee-free brokers, there’s also Habito¹ and Better.co.uk too – and both of those are more modern, where you can get your mortgage online – they work around your busy schedule and you can manage your mortgage on their website.
Habito also offers a service which brings everything you’ll need to buy your dream home under one roof – that’s things like the legal work (conveyancing) and building surveys.
All the extra bits you’ll have to arrange and pay for yourself if you use a traditional broker, or London & Country and Better.co.uk. Habito is worth looking into, it saves you a lot of time and stress, plus you get the mortgage advice free too (and these extras are all optional, you can just get mortgage advice too, which is free). Here’s our Habito review to learn more.
The customer support is pretty bad overall.
L&C Mortgages are a big machine (well, call centre), and as we’ve said above, the quality varies depending on who your advisor is. Don’t get us wrong, some advisors are great, but some are not so great.
There’s no live-chat feature on their website, to ask questions online, and there’s no actual phone number to call for help, they just take calls to speak to an advisor.
And there’s not much helpful content on their website to learn about mortgages and how L&C work, the website is pretty much focused on trying to get you to get your mortgage from them.
In this day and age, we’d expect a lot more support for customers – especially if you compare the support and service to more modern brokers like Habito and Better.co.uk.
Yep! It’s authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which means they’re approved to provide mortgage advice, and help you find the right mortgage.
It also means you’re protected by the FCA if they give you incorrect information and bad advice, such as the wrong mortgage, and you’ll be able to claim compensation.
Overall, L&C has a good record from customers, with an overall score of 4.5 out of 5 on the popular reviews website, Trustpilot. You’ll mostly see either 5 star or 1 star reviews.
However, it’s not quite as good as Habito and Better.co.uk, both with 4.8 out of 5 (so lots more 5 star reviews).
The main issues are around communication and customer service, with delays fairly common. This often happens with more traditional companies who don’t have the modern technology to manage customers in a consistent way and keep track of them all.
Plus, as we’ve mentioned each advisor can treat their customers differently, so it’s hit or miss if you get a good advisor or not!
If this were the 1990s or early 2000s, we’d think L&C were amazing – free mortgage advice, and all handled over the phone, without having to meet an advisor in person, how good would that have sounded?
But now there’s the internet and websites doing some awesome things, so now L&C just seems outdated.
L&C haven’t been able to keep up with technology and new companies like Habito and Better.co.uk have replaced them – with good websites where you can manage your mortgage without having to speak to someone unless you want to, and there’s live-chat so you don’t even have to pick up the phone.
Plus with Habito, they’ll handle everything to do with buying a house for you, you don’t need to worry about the legal work or building surveys. It’s all very modern and what we expect in today's world to be honest!
London & Country is OK for mortgage advice as it’s free and can search the whole market, but you get that with Habito and Better.co.uk anyway, and the service is better, and they’re online – they work around your schedule, you don’t have to book any meetings like with L&C.
So overall, we’re giving L&C 2 stars. They’re not the worst mortgage broker out there, but there’s much better options, and we recommend checking out Habito¹ (here’s our Habito review). If L&C is for you however, here’s the L&C website to learn more.
Check out Habito – they're free, online, will get the best deal for you, and 5* rated!
Check out Habito – they're free, online, will get the best deal for you, and 5* rated!
Check out Habito – they're free, online, will get the best deal for you, and 5* rated!
Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.
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Check out Habito – they're free, online, will get the best deal for you, and 5* rated!
