John Charcol Reviews

Name: John Charcol
Address: St. Helen's, 1 Undershaft, London, London
Rating: 4.88

4.9 Rating 2,640 Reviews

98 %

of reviewers recommend John Charcol

Company Reviews

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4.9

Based on 2,640 reviews

Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	5 out of 5

About John Charcol:

John Charcol is an award-winning team of independent mortgage experts who provide friendly and professional advice both over the phone and in person. We help thousands of people each year and have become one of the top mortgage brokers in the UK.

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John Charcol 5 star review on 23rd April 2021

Vicent A

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Randeep looked after my remortgage. He was super-responsive throughout, communicated very clearly and was a pleasure to deal with, I can't recommend him highly enough. I am no longer resident in the UK and the property is let, but despite the specialised requirements he was able to find a suitable product. I got quotes from a number of other brokers, but Randeep was the most professional, provided the best fixed rate and the fee was much lower than the competition. I have used John Charcol for a number of mortgages and re-mortgages over at least 20 years and have always received excellent service. Thank you!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Excellent service from start to finish and went the extra mile to make sure everything went through smoothly.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“We had a very positive experience with John Charcol. Everything was completed through Andrew Ireland who was great with contact, got us the mortgage we needed and provided great advice. Would highly recommend!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Very pleased with the service from Andrew Ireland at John Charcol. Would highly recommend his services to another first time buyer - informative, patient. Always around to answer queries by phone or email and engaged with my individual situation. Frequency of outreach was sensible throughout an elongated process.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“I have used John Charcol for many years sorting mortgages for myself and my companies. Until now I have never had any issues but this contact has been so dreadful and expensive that I cannot believe it was with the same firm. I was trying to arrange to port my son and daughter’s NatWest mortgage onto a new property for them. It should have been very simple but John Charcol had sorted the original mortgage so I thought it better to let them do it. We were looking for an increase as well as the original sum as is normal in the circumstances. I explained the position to broker Dan Watkins, he asked for the supporting documents, my daughter is self-employed and son, sadly, is permanently disabled so survives on benefits. Everything was emailed over. A couple of days later Dan comes back with great news – “We’d be able to achieve borrowing capacity of £304,000 taking into account the benefits and the last 2 year average income from self-employment. This is assuming there is no ongoing debts or commitments.” I confirmed there were no debts or commitments and checked that the mortgage was NatWest ported, which Dan confirms. Great! Dan wishes us luck house hunting! – “Thanks and best of luck with the property search.” We went house hunting, with the mortgage sum being £10K more than we expected it was good when we found a suitable house and had an offer accepted on it. We had had an offer on our existing house, a cheeky £25,000 below the asking price but the agents were confident they would push it up a bit. Purple bricks started to push us for proof of money, I sent the email from John Charcol and the estate agent confirmed the offer on our property – all fine. Purple bricks came back asking for an AIP from NatWest not an email from John Charcol. I emailed Dan asking him to get one, he said it would take a couple of days. After four days with no news I called him but got an answerphone twice. I called the main switchboard, was told Dan was on holiday! I was put through to Daniel Harris. He was great, he looked at the file, no AIP had been received from NatWest but he said that the figures all looked fine and that Dan had committed John Charcol to getting us a mortgage so he would send me a John Charcol AIP which he stated, “Purple Bricks would be happy with since JC never failed to honour an AIP.” We discussed what would happen if NatWest came back with a lower figure and Daniel explained that they had loads of borrowers that would easily cover the £304,000 and the early settlement penalty, £6,000 from NatWest. He repeated that JC never breaks a commitment. The AIP arrived from JC and I sent it to PurpleBricks who immediately confirmed it was fine. My daughter was concerned that we could lose the house if someone else made and offer so we finalised it and told our agents to agree to the £400,000 offer on our property so we could get the legal teams in action. We were using the same lawyers we had used previously and told them to get on with it. We had a small party, we had apparently bought the house we wanted. Then PurpleBricks came back saying they needed a bank AIP, I think the JC one just didn’t match a tick box on their check list but I chased Dan again, his reply took the ground out from under our feet! “Sorry to hear there’s issues with our Certificate. The case was originally referred to NatWest and we had to wait a while for a response on this. In the meantime I believe this certificate was provided to you. We have had a response back from NatWest and they have stated the maximum amount of borrowing allowed would be £258,200 after review of the application as a whole. We are now falling short of the amount required so I’m not sure how you would like to proceed at this stage.” NatWest had come back £45,000 less than Dan had stated initially. I replied reiterating Daniel’s comments, Dan said he would talk to Daniel to see what was agreed. Dan came back with an email that shocked us, “I’m very sorry for the miscommunication from Daniel, he provided this without checking the referral details with NatWest which were still pending; he has now left the business. We should not be providing AIP certificates without finalising checks first and I appreciate that it has caused you a lot of inconvenience for you all.” It was Dan that committed JC to the £304,000 by his statement – “We’d be able to achieve borrowing capacity of £304,000” Daniel just followed his lead after looking at his figures! John Charcol refuse to honour their commitment made by Dan or the AIP issued in Dan’s name by Daniel. There was no reason for us to doubt that the £304,000 was correct when we received the AIP. We accepted an offer for £400,000 for our house on the basis that the £304,000 would allow us to complete the deal on buying our new house. That now comes back to bite us, that buyer has gone elsewhere since we haven’t got a house to buy leaving the chain incomplete and other viewers all offer £400,000 to match the last accepted but incomplete sale price, social media means there are no secrets! There is little chance we will attain the £425,000 price that the estate agents believe is the actual valuation of the house now so we have lost £25,000 and have little or no chance of ever completing on the purchase of our house. John Charcol have seriously messed up and will not even talk to u about it, we just get rubbish replies, the initial line from Dan was a ‘GUIDE’ based on his use of the NatWest Calculator but that was never stated nor were we warned when he wished us good luck house hunting! The AIP is effectively a PROMISE to get that mortgage if nothing has changed, we didn’t have time to change anything! It appears John Charcol are now employing low grade staff who take shortcuts and rely on being bailed out by their seniors but issuing a false AIP gets you fired showing just how serious it is . Will anybody ever accept a John Charcol commitment or AIP after the way they behaved here?”

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Posted 2 years ago

Hi Chris, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. As you know from our ongoing discussions we are disappointed that the service you received when assessing your affordability fell below our normally very high standards, and the standards that you will have expected based on your previous experiences with us. While we acknowledge and sincerely apologise for the experience you have had so far, we maintain that a number of your comments below are unsubstantiated but we will continue to be open and transparent with you throughout our investigation. We understand you, as well as us, are keen to resolve these issues in order to proceed with an application and we'll continue to work with you on this. Kind regards, Alice

Posted 2 years ago

“My remortgaging of a property in the UK ended up being more complicated and slow as a result of me being based abroad, whilst still being a UK tax resident. On three occasions I had initial agreements rescinded by lenders as they learnt more about my international status. However Lauren Swift at John Charcol not only sourced a deal with an agreeable lender, it also ended up being the lowest interest rate offer I had received out of all four proposals. This during the time as interest rates received multiple increases from the BoE. Beyond her ability to secure me a deal, Lauren's communication was exemplary, she was always available to me when I needed to speak to her and her handling of my account from start to finish was conducted with the utmost professionalism. This professionalism was then replicated by my post-offer account liaison Hollie Yeates. Overall, I could not have had a better experience as a borrower.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“I cannot recommend Nia James highly enough. We are both self employed with a complex set up in my husbands family business which makes things very difficult when moving house. We also had a complication with our first AIP when the provider decided not to lend us after we had found our dream home. Nia worked tirelessly to find us a new lender . Most importantly - Nia was always contactable, knowledgeable, professional and friendly . A great service for anyone who is self employed /has an income stream that doesn't fit the strict lending criteria of high street banks”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Sarah Teff and Fiona Allan have been brilliant from start to finish. My journey to purchase my house was a long one, with lots of waiting and a couple of disappointments, but both Sarah and Fiona were really helpful all along the way. Sarah gave me some really useful advice relating to the first house I had an offer accepted on, which helped me make the decision that it wasn't the right house for me. And I'm really grateful for her knowledge and experience as it was definitely the right decision and now I'm in my perfect home! I would highly recommend John Charcol.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Ezra Le Mon was brilliant in helping me remortgage and fix my interest rate. I highly recommend him to anyone looking to do the same.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Great service and advice, the specialist team Harry and Emily talked me through a range of options before we decided on the best approach for bridging finance. They really know their market and are extremely client- responsive. SC”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Finally in our forever home thanks to the first class service provided by Jordan Tomlinson and John Charcoal. A complicated expat mortgage with many other brokers turning us down at the first phone call. Jordan took her time to understand our personal circumstances and offered much needed reassurance and support throughout every step of the way. Forever grateful!!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Kevin Lachasseigne and Fiona Allan were amazing. My mortgage journey was challenging as the owner had made changes in the property without having building regulations certificate and the mortgage was initially declined. The estate agent was not helpful so I had to work with the owner directly to get this done. To make things worse, the lender was giving us conflicting instructions every day, delaying the process to the extend that the owner put the house back in the market. Fiona and Kevin escalated the matter with a formal complaint, going the extra mile liaising with the senior team of the lender, while trying to reassure the estate agent. We finally got the mortgage approved 6 months later. Everyone thought that this was a lost case at some point, but it was our determination, the hard work and resilience of Fiona and Kevin who made this happen. It was very stressful for all of us, but I can imagine how draining is to go through this for every client. I really can’t thank them enough for all the efforts and care during this journey that got me finally in my first home!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Excellent support from Shaahid Quinn and Katherine Hollyoake. My mortgage setup wasn't easy as i was overseas for the majority of the time and they made the process as easy as possible and secured a product that I'm very happy with, well worth the cost.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Bruce Anderson, our long-standing mortgage adviser, was able to expedite two mortgage renewals both of which were completely without hassle, even in this ever-changing market. It speaks volumes about having an adviser who knows and understands his clients.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“We were delighted with the advice we received from Randeep. The remortgage process on the flat was straightforward and we completed as planned. Thank you Randeep and the team at John Charcol.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“John Charcol have been amazing, they have the specialest knowledge, expertise and infrastructure to make the purchase of your dream property possible. My deal was complex and challenging, yet JC presented it in a simple way that made perfect sense. They provided support through the whole of the process and communicated with all parties quickly and efficiently. I can't recommend enough anyone considering John Charcoal to assist in a property purchase. There is a reason they one of the best mortgage brokers in the UK. wishing my best to all the team at John Charcol.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“You guys are great! Thank you Perfect Agent for connecting us!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Thanks to Jordan and Holly for tirelessly progressing my mortgage. Exceeded my expectations by some way.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“The team at John Charcol are just brilliant Emily Gould and Tiara Hardy go beyond the extra mile . They do what it takes to get everything across the line . I would highly recommend them both Phenomenal service and support Thank you Tiara Emily and the team”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Damien worked tirelessly on my behalf in what were, at times, challenging circumstances. His knowledge of available products and options enabled me to secure a really good deal.”

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Posted 2 years ago

John Charcol is rated 4.9 based on 2,640 reviews