Allen Cooper - Wallace Home Finance

02/06/2026

Well, Kefalonia was a blast. What a beautiful island 🇬🇷 ☀️

Lovely rest and relax which was very much needed after a busy first few months of 2026!

Fully back working this week, so if I can help with anything ongoing or new, please get in touch.

20/05/2026

Hi everyone, I am now on annual leave until Friday May 29th and will have limited access to emails and messages.

For any current clients, please email me as normal and I will get back to you upon my return. If there is anything urgent, please contact me on WhatsApp but note that response times won’t be quite as super quick as usual!

For anyone that has a referral for me, please send those as normal and I will contact your friend/family member promptly upon my return.

Thank you for your support.

Allen

18/05/2026

ERCs - what are they?

Three letters that your mortgage advisor better mention.

Early Repayment Charge.

This is a charge for repaying your mortgage early, whilst still in your initial fixed period.

Many people choose a 5-year fix and never think about it again.

Until they do.

I had a client come to me last year, they were one year into a 5-year fixed rate that their previous mortgage advisor recommended to them.

They now wanted to move to a bigger house because they were expecting their first child. They told me they had been trying to start a family for a few months.

They couldn’t port the mortgage (not a high street lender due to some credit issues).

The ERC? £11k!

Yes, really.

That single number reshaped everything about their next move.

The timelines
The budget
The options.

They still haven’t moved entirely because of this as they couldn’t stomach paying the charge - understandably!

Here is the thing few people make clear.

The longer the fix, the longer the ERC period.

And the higher the charge tends to be in the early years.

That’s not a reason to avoid a long fix.

Sometimes a 5-year rate is exactly the right call.

But only if it fits your actual life plans, not because you worry about rates going up. Everyone’s circumstances are unique to them.

When you sit down with your advisor, tell them everything:

- Potential job, career or income changes on the horizon.
- Planning to start a family
- Kids leaving home.
- Upsizing
- Downsizing

Anything and everything you think could be relevant.

Because good advisors don’t just find you a rate.

They are building a strategy around a life they know nothing about unless you tell them.

Three letters. £11k!

One conversation done properly, that could have changed everything.

Is this something you’ve ever considered before when taking on a new mortgage?

12/05/2026

A brand new review this week from a fantastic client; little excerpt from it here 🫶🏼

It’s what I do 🤝

Allen consistently goes above and beyond for his clients, providing expert guidance on mortgages, life insurance, and income protection. His calm and professional approach helps make moving home less stressful and ensures clients feel supported every step of the way.

Allen Cooper - Wallace Home Finance Allen Cooper

08/05/2026

WHAT’S IN A CREDIT SCORE? (Bit of a read!)

I have spent over 20 years within the credit industry. (Yes, I know it’s hard to believe…)

One thing that strikes me now is that many clients that I speak to think that their credit score is the most important thing when it comes to getting a mortgage. IT ISN’T!

It matters a BIT. But not as much as you think.

I speak to many people who are WORRIED
about applying for a mortgage because their Experian
or ClearScore number isn't a perfect 999.

I’ll let you all into a little secret. Lenders don’t really use that arbitrary number that you see on your file.

Many lenders use their own scorecard, based on a number of factors, and in fact they have different minimum scores based on what they see.

What a mortgage underwriter ACTUALLY
cares about is the information on your file that generates the score that you see.

Your actual behaviour when it comes to handling your credit. How much and what type of credit do you have? Do you pay on time? Do you regularly take out short term credit?

If you have ever had any credit blips, how bad was the problem and how long ago was it?

Did your score drop because you’ve missed 3 mortgage payments in a row? That’s going to be a big problem. 🚩

If you defaulted on a credit card 2 years ago and that is reducing your score still - not ideal but not a dealbreaker on its own. 📉

Did your score drop because you took out 0% finance on a new DFS sofa last month, but you’ve never missed a payment before? Maybe, but the lender isn’t going to care about that. 🤝

I have helped clients that have just completed an IVA (insolvency) get a mortgage, people with multiple CCJs and clients currently on debt management plans (DMPs).

There aren’t mortgages for everyone, but there are for people in far more situations than you’d imagine. 🏡

Do you know anyone that has put off buying a house because of their credit score?

05/05/2026

Review time! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Always grateful for every single one, and referrals to friends and family even more so. Thank you 🙏🏼

27/04/2026

Why use a mortgage broker?

Here’s what working with a broker like me actually gives you (that Google and ChatGPT can’t)

Let’s be honest, the world feels pretty unstable right now, right?

Wars, petrol prices booming, holidays abroad at risk if the jet fuel shortages worsen.

Some people are panicking.

Some people are waiting to see what happens next.

Very few people feel completely confident right now.

And that makes sense.

Because in the current mortgage market, things are changing… and quickly.

- Rates are being adjusted very quickly.
- Products are being withdrawn with very little notice in some cases.

This is what most people don’t see:

As a mortgage broker, I receive updates constantly.
Not weekly. Not monthly. More like daily.

Information that isn’t always visible to the public.
Changes that can affect decisions overnight.

So when someone asks,
“Why would I use a broker instead of doing it myself?”

This is why.

It’s not just about finding a rate. That’s about 5% of my job in all honesty.

It’s about:

- Securing a deal as early as possible so that you’re protected.
- Monitoring the market right up until completion
- Switching you onto a better rate if things improve, to save you money
- Understanding lender criteria (which isn’t always straightforward - for most clients it’s not simply the one that LOOKS cheapest)
- Removing the need for you to keep checking, guessing, or second-guessing
- Because you don’t want to spend weeks refreshing comparison sites, trying to interpret changing rates, or wondering if you’ve made the right decision.

Instead you want to feel:

Clear.
Calm.
Confident.

And that’s where a good broker comes in.
Not just to find a deal, but to guide you through the process and stay on top of it for you.

It’s what I do every day.

23/04/2026

Out of office today, so responses to emails and messages may be slightly less lightning quick than usual 😄

Meeting Mortgage lenders and Protection providers to see how they can further help my clients.

Always learning 🗒️ 🎓

19/04/2026

When people ask me what I’m like to deal with as a mortgage advisor, I ask them to have a read of my reviews.

There is no better advocate for my advice and support than clients that I have helped before.

I am grateful for all reviews, but this is certainly one of my favourite.

I don’t simply find people the cheapest deal, it’s so much more than that.

17/04/2026

Morning everyone, and thank you to everyone that has followed my new page recently.

Just a short post today on interest rates. So, it's been rather painful over the last few weeks since the Iran-US War started, with fixed mortgage rates having increased significantly, as some of you will be fully aware.

There has been a little c***k of light this week though! Swap rates, which are rates that lenders pay to lock money in at a fixed rate - to then lend to you - have come down a little this week.

This has already seen the likes of HSBC, Santander and Leeds Building Society make some cuts to their product range.

Given the volatility of the situation in Iran, there's no way of knowing what will happen next, but it's nice to see a few rates falling instead of rising.

If I have made an application for you since the War started, I will, as always, continue to monitor your deal to see if a cheaper rate has become available.

Any questions, shout up!

Allen