Martin Lewis delved into some controversial territory during his The Martin Lewis Podcast last week as the money mogul did a deep dive on mortgages, finding some red flags about mortgage brokers on the way.

One listener called into the show hoping to get some advice on her unfortunate predicament.

The 50-year-old revealed she was getting divorced and their marital house was being sold and she seemed downcast about her chances of getting a new mortgage at a good rate.

Martin and his guest expert Andrew Montlake of Coreco Mortgages take a squiz through her finances and assured her she shouldn’t have much of a problem.

The issue arose when the caller revealed: “I went to a mortgage adviser and she said I could take some money out of my pension, that sort of scared me.” Both Andrew and Martin let out an instant sneer of disagreement.

The mortgage expert added the caveat that he would need to know her full financial history before making a definitive decision.

However, he noted: “I wouldn’t rush to take money out of your pension to do this. It doesn’t sound like you need to.”

Martin also assured the caller: “You don’t have to go to the first mortgage broker you speak to.”

He quickly pivoted to give his general audience a major warning on how mortgage brokers operate, adding: “The golden rule from me; you should not be paying any broker unless they get you a mortgage. You don’t pay a broker to chat, I wouldn’t pay them upfront.”

The MSE founder shared: “There are brokers out there who take commission, they work off a large panel of lenders who give them commission but they probably won’t look at the few lenders who don’t pay commission.

“Then there are brokers who take a fee and commission which can mean they’re looking at a slightly wider range and there’s some who work fee only and rebate the commission for you.”

Martin insisted that any of these types of brokers could potentially work for any person “as long as you’re working with an independent mortgage broker going cross-market”.

He still urged people to look at getting professional advice whenever necessary too: “Even if they’re not looking at every mortgage out there, it’s a lot better than doing it for yourself.”