The vast majority of mortgage advisers are doing a bad job, putting buyers at risk of signing up to deals which are wrong for them, it is claimed.
Which? Money says most of them are more interested in selling insurance, even if their customers don't need it.
The consumer group sent "mystery shopper" researchers into 50 banks, estate agents and individual firms, posing as first-time buyers who knew nothing about home loans.
It found that fewer than one in 10 advisers gave out adequate information.
Some 41 of them failed to provide at least one piece of key information, while 35 failed to check properly whether the individual could afford the repayments.
One dismissed the key facts document giving details on a mortgage and which they are required to show customers by the Financial Services Authority, saying: "A lot of the stuff in there is just blah, blah, blah".
Another dismissed the idea that interest rates might fall again when recommending a fixed-rate deal, despite the fact that they were cut just weeks later.
A third adviser even tried to use Kylie Minogue's breast cancer to persuade a researcher to buy critical illness cover.
Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Money, said: "Listening to people's needs and giving tailored advice should be the bread and butter of a mortgage adviser's job.
"But too many of the advisers that we visited took a 'one size fits all' approach or seemed as concerned with selling an insurance policy on the side.
"With mortgage costs soaring and the spectre of negative equity returning to the property market, it's important that people get help to find the right deal."
Source: http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/23072008/140/loan-advisers-letting
-buyers.html
