Freelancer Financials: Best Contractor Mortgage Provider/Broker Finalist 2024

Last year, we won the Contracting Awards' Best Contractor Mortgage Provider or Broker category.

It was the second time we'd done so, having first won the award in 2020.

Last month, Contracting Awards announced their shortlist for this year's Awards. And, happy days: we've made the final cut again!

We'll find out whether we've retained our title at this year's ceremony at Hilton Park Lane in November.

But, ahead of the event, I want to go behind the scenes.

What makes an award-winning contractor mortgage broker?

What do we do as an organisation that has seen us make every shortlist since this prestigious award began?

Five-star service across t'Interweb

Every year, we have to convince the Awards panel that we deserve to make it through to the final judging phase. At this point, you might throw that ancient adage back at us: 'Self praise is no praise!'

And, you'd be right. It's obvious we're going to big up our service to the panel.

Luckily, we don't need to rely solely on what we say about ourselves. Between Facebook and Google Reviews, we have almost 1,000 satisfied clients who've taken time out to rate our service as 5-star!

At time of writing, here are the latest three on Google:

Chris Sheppy, Sept 1, 2024

If there were more stars, I would rate Andrew Saunders even higher.

Throughout our mortgage application and renewal, he couldn’t do more for us, always looking for the best options in a very volatile and continuous[ly] changing environment, supporting us in our decisions and always having our best interest at heart.

He always answered all our questions quickly and explained option[s] very clearly, so that we could make the most informative decisions. We couldn’t recommend him enough- Thank you, Andy!

Laurence Berry, Aug 30, 2024

Excellent advice given which enabled me to get the best mortgage available.

Paulo Soares, Aug 14, 2024

We've used Freelancer Financials expertise to flawlessly secure a mortgage with the best rates.

Andrew Saunders took us by the hand and…expertly guided us through the whole process. Very engaged from the beginning, prompt and ready with the queries and patient with hiccups along the way but ultimately the journey was successful and we cannot recommend their services enough!

Contractors on contractor service providers

In addition to reviews out in the wild, the ContractorUK forum is similarly steeped in praise from our clients. Their feedback has made us the most recommended mortgage firm thereupon, testament to our exceptional service.

Going beyond mortgages and protection

The services we provide are only a small part of the contractor lifestyle. We know that our clients have to reach out to other professional service providers along the way.

To that end, we aim to give back to the contracting community through the Contracting Awards. So, once again, we're sponsoring the Best Contractor Insurance Provider or Broker category.

We want to wish all finalists the best of luck, and can't wait to see them at the ceremony in November:

• Tapoly;
• Kingsbridge Group;
• Hiscox;
• Markel UK;
• Qdos Contractor.

Our ethos sets us apart

When I created Freelancer Financials in 2004, I had one goal: to get lenders to treat the UK's flexible workforce with the same impartiality they treat employed workers.

As far as ideas go, it was bold. And we've certainly nailed it, with more lenders offering contractor-friendly mortgages than ever before. But the process we've used, as well as the market itself, has changed over time.

I knew that, as long as we stuck to the goal, we'd win through in the end. And so it proved.

Raising the customer service bar has made us the go-to resource for contractors looking for mortgage advice and guidance. To this day, our cornerstone principles remain:

• Invest in long-term relationships: customers are for life;
• Always go the extra mile, especially when the going gets tough;
• Deliver clear, transparent communication throughout the application;
• Know your customer beyond their set of impersonal mortgage requirements;
• Respond to and update clients promptly, even if the news isn't exactly what they want to hear.

We drive innovation (not it us)

The UK housing market is a fluid beast. Often driven by global factors, not just local or national events, we have to adapt and adopt, something at which we're adept.

In recent years, we've seen our client base go from predominantly limited company contractors to umbrella employees today. We've helped lead this change within our lenders' specialist underwriting teams.

Many of our clients have also foregone contracting altogether. Due to changes in IR35 (Off-Payroll rules in both the public and private sectors), they've returned to permanent PAYE employment.

To accommodate clients who've left the flexible workforce, we’ve relaunched our parent brand, Mortgage Quest. So, for any of our self-employed clients who think we can no longer help them, nothing could be further from the truth.

Mortgage Quest can now assist everyone, including ex-contractors who need to explain their work history to a mortgage lender.

Advances in tech and AI

We've also had to acknowledge changing technology, both from an internal perspective and for our website visitors' usability. We've not shied away from either challenge.

This year we’ve introduced two new groundbreaking services for clients:

1. A “win-win” mortgage rate monitoring service:

Many homeowners looking to remortgage this year have faced a huge leap in interest rates. We've seen all manner of tactics to delay the inevitable, with clients:

• sitting it out on their lender's SVR,
• taking out interim tracker mortgages, or
• extending their mortgage term to bring down their monthly repayments.

There had to be another way.

There was, and we found it: our mortgage rate monitoring service.

Our clients can now lock in deals up to six months before their fixed-rate period expires. If rates rise in that time, it doesn't matter: you pay the initial rate they locked in when adopting the service.

If rates reduce during that period, even better. Our clients don't have to do anything: we instantly move you onto any lower rate coming to market for your chosen mortgage deal.

2. The UK’s first contractor mortgage search engine

We didn't sit on our laurels during the pandemic. We took that quiet time to invest in a whole new, fancy back-end support system.

It's done many things for us internally. But it's also helped us innovate outwardly to our clients direct.

Using our experience—and many of the broker team today have been with us from the outset—we created the UK's first contractor mortgage search engine.

In essence, it's like any other mortgage comparison tool. But we've eliminated any lender from the search who doesn't have favourable contractor-friendly mortgage policies. We think it's a game-changer, as any mortgage the tool matches to your criteria is guaranteed to be from a contractor-friendly lender.

You ain't seen nothin' yet

Those are the credentials we've submitted to the judges at this year's Contracting Awards. All the services are ready to go, available today. And, fingers crossed, we hope they get us over the line.

Whether you're a past client or new to us, give us a chance. See for yourself why we've won so many awards, both in specialist and general mortgage broker categories. Let us surprise you!

And, talking of surprises, don't even start on what we've got going on behind the scenes for later this year. This is just the beginning!!