It is one of the first questions people ask us, usually with a slightly wary tone, and it is a fair question to be wary about. Mortgage advice is one of those services where the price is often buried until you are several conversations deep. So here is the whole picture: what mortgage brokers typically charge in the UK, how we are paid instead, and how to work out whether any of it is worth it.
Some brokers charge you a fee. Some are paid only by the lender. We are the second kind for standard cases, which is where the name of this business comes from. You pay us nothing for the advice, the research across the market or the work of getting your application through to offer.
That is not a special offer and it is not a loss leader. It is simply a different way of getting paid, and it is worth understanding how it works before you decide who to trust with something this size.
There is no standard price for mortgage advice in the UK, which is part of the problem. According to Compare My Move, drawing on research by Boon Brokers, broker fees typically fall between £200 and £500, though some run to over £1,000 for more involved cases. Percentage based fees are usually around 0.35% of the loan amount, and can reach 1%.
The most common model. You are quoted a set amount at the outset, often somewhere in that £200 to £500 band, and it does not change with the size of your mortgage. Straightforward, and easy to compare.
Less common, and worth doing the arithmetic on. A fee of 1% sounds modest until you apply it to the loan. On a £300,000 mortgage that is £3,000, for work that is not meaningfully different from the same job on a £150,000 mortgage. If a broker quotes a percentage, ask what it comes to in pounds before you go any further.
This varies and it matters. Some brokers charge on application, some on offer, some on completion. Some split it. A fee payable on application is money you have spent whether or not the mortgage goes ahead, and purchases fall through for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Ask when it is due and whether it is refundable if the case does not complete.
When your mortgage completes, the lender pays us a commission. It is called a procuration fee in the trade, and it is a percentage of the loan. Compare My Move puts the standard figure at around 0.35% of the loan amount, which on a £200,000 mortgage works out at roughly £700.
That payment comes from the lender, not from you, and it is not added to your mortgage or your rate. The rates we can access are the same rates the lender offers directly, and in some cases lenders release products through brokers that are not available on the high street at all. You are not paying a premium for going through us.
You will always be told in writing what we are paid and by whom before you commit to anything. That is not us being virtuous, it is an FCA requirement, and you should expect it from any broker you speak to.
It is the obvious suspicion, so let us take it seriously.
Procuration fees are broadly similar across lenders, which is deliberate: it removes the incentive to steer you towards a particular one. There are small variations, but not enough to make it worth recommending the wrong mortgage for you, and doing so would breach our obligations under the FCA rules we are bound by. We recommend what fits, and we are happy to show our working.
The honest answer is that the model works on volume and on not wasting anyone's time, including our own. It does not work by doing less for you. We still research across the whole market, we still handle the application through to offer, and we still chase the lender and the solicitor so you do not have to. If we did that badly we would not get recommended, and recommendation is most of where our business comes from.
No, and it would be misleading to say so. Standard cases go through The Fee Free Mortgage Broker with no fee to you. Genuinely complex cases, such as significant adverse credit or a complicated self employed income history, take considerably more casework, and those we look after through our sister firm Alexander Southwell Mortgages with a clear, low, transparent fee agreed with you upfront. You will know which category you are in during the first conversation, not at the end of the process. You can read more about how the two sides of the business work on our about page.
Even with no broker fee, a mortgage is not free to arrange. These are the costs that catch people out, and they are worth budgeting for whoever you use.
Charged by the lender, commonly up to around £1,000 or so, and usually addable to the loan. Beware of adding it: you then pay interest on it for the rest of the term. A lower rate with a big fee is not automatically cheaper than a slightly higher rate with none, and on smaller loans the fee often dominates. Working out the total cost over the fixed period, fees included, is a large part of what we do.
The lender's own valuation to confirm the property is worth what you are borrowing against. Free on a great many products, particularly remortgages. A survey for your own benefit, which is a different and more thorough thing, is a separate cost.
You need a conveyancer for a purchase, and for a remortgage to a new lender. Many remortgage products include free legal work or cashback towards it. A purchase does not, and conveyancing is one of the larger line items in a move.
Not payable on a remortgage, and not payable by most first time buyers below the relief threshold, but a significant cost on a purchase. Our stamp duty calculator will give you the figure for your situation.
Sometimes, yes. A fee charging broker who specialises in exactly your situation, and who gets you a mortgage that a generalist would not have found, has earned their money. The question is not whether a fee is inherently bad. It is what you are getting for it that you could not get otherwise.
What you should never do is pay a fee simply because you did not know there was an alternative, or because the fee was mentioned only after you were too far in to walk away.
Set against any fee, the thing that moves real money is the mortgage itself.
The Bank of England held the base rate at 3.75% on 17 September 2026, yet fixed rates have been rising because lenders price them off swap rates rather than the base rate. Uswitch's rate tracker, updated 25 September 2026, put the average two year fixed rate at 75% loan to value at 5.69% and the average five year at 5.75%, with the average standard variable rate at 7.25%.
That last number is the point. The distance between a fixed rate and a typical SVR dwarfs any broker fee in the market, and you land on the SVR automatically by doing nothing when your deal ends. Getting the right mortgage, on time, is worth far more than saving a few hundred pounds on advice. Our post on broker versus bank when rates are rising goes into why one lender's rate sheet is rarely the best answer.
These are market averages on one day, not a quote, and your own figure will depend on your loan, your loan to value and your circumstances. You can get a rough idea of payments with our mortgage repayment calculator.
If you are comparing brokers, ask three questions: what do you charge, when is it payable, and how many lenders can you access. The answers tell you almost everything.
If your deal ends within six months, the cost of waiting is larger than the cost of advice. Our guide on what to do six months before your deal ends covers the timing.
If you are a first time buyer, a broker fee on top of a deposit, stamp duty, legal fees and moving costs is a real burden, and it is exactly the reason this business exists. Our first time buyer pages set out what lenders look for.
If you are self employed, check whether your case is standard or complex before you assume either way. Plenty of self employed applications are perfectly straightforward. Our self employed guide explains what lenders want to see.
Some do and some do not. Fee charging brokers typically charge between £200 and £500, sometimes more, or a percentage of the loan. Fee free brokers are paid a commission by the lender instead. You should be told which applies, and how much, in writing before you commit.
For standard cases, yes. We are paid by the lender on completion. You still pay the lender's own costs, such as any product fee, valuation or legal work, and those exist whichever broker you use.
No. Broker products are generally the same rates the lender offers directly, and some lenders release products only through brokers. The commission is paid by the lender out of its own margin and is not added to your rate.
Typically around 0.35% of the loan amount, which is roughly £700 on a £200,000 mortgage according to Compare My Move. It is paid when the mortgage completes, so if your case does not complete, we are not paid.
We will tell you early, explain why, and set out exactly what the fee would be through Alexander Southwell Mortgages before you decide. There is no situation where a fee appears later without a conversation first.
No. Life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection advice is provided on the same basis, with the insurer paying the commission. You can read about the options on our protection pages.
If you take one thing from this, make it the habit of asking any broker what they charge, when it is payable and how much of the market they can see, before you hand over a single document. A good broker will answer all three without hesitating.
We are based in Romsey in Hampshire and look after clients across the UK. If you would like a straight answer about your own situation and what, if anything, it would cost, get in touch. There is no fee and no obligation for standard cases, and you will be told upfront if yours is not one.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Fee levels and figures quoted come from the sources and dates named and will vary between firms and over time. They are illustrations rather than a quote, and any advice should be based on your own circumstances.
Get in touch early in your property journey, ideally before viewing or making an offer, to give yourself the best chance. Whether you’re exploring your borrowing capacity or ready to apply we’re here to help from the very beginning.
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Fee Free Mortgage Broker is a trading style of Alexander Southwell Mortgage Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (FRN 1011890).
Registered in England & Wales (Company No. 11772228).
Registered office: Nix Business Centre, 2 Park Court, Abbey Park Industrial Estate, Romsey, Southampton, SO51 9DH. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZA488146.
Information on this website is for general guidance only and is accurate at the time of writing. It does not constitute personalised financial advice. Mortgage criteria and lender policies can change; please speak to an FCA-authorised adviser for up-to-date advice tailored to your circumstances. Some buy-to-let mortgages are not regulated by the FCA.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.
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