Habit, more than criteria or pricing, may be shaping more sourcing decisions than brokers realise, and Pepper Money is challenging that assumption
Experienced brokers develop a strong instinct for which lenders suit which type of case. That instinct is earned; built on real cases placed, real conversations with BDMs, and a genuine understanding of how different lenders operate. It’s one of the most valuable things a broker brings to a customer.
But every so often, it’s worth pausing and asking a simple question before reaching for the usual panel: am I making this decision based on today’s market, or yesterday’s assumptions?
Ryan Brailsford, Distribution Director at Pepper Money commented, “Lender perceptions can take a long time to change, even when the proposition itself has moved on. Two-year fixed rates are a good example. For a while, brokers may have associated Pepper with higher two-year pricing, particularly compared with five-year options, but that picture has changed quickly. Recent pricing shifts mean brokers who haven’t looked at us for a while may find Pepper sitting in a very different place today.”
Habits are useful, but markets move on
Sourcing a mortgage today means working in a market that shifts more often than it used to. Product ranges are repriced frequently in 2026, criteria is adjusted, and lenders change where they want to compete. Customer circumstances continue to diversify, from self-employed income to more complex credit histories. And lenders themselves aren’t standing still either, regularly reworking their propositions to compete for the cases they want to write.
A lender’s reputation is often set early and takes a long time to shift, even after the lender has changed. If a lender built its name years ago around a particular niche or pricing position, brokers may keep associating it with that position long after the underlying proposition has moved on.
Many brokers still think of Pepper Money mainly as a lender who helps customers who’ve experienced adverse credit meaning not somewhere you’d go for a sharp rate. That reputation was earned at a different point in the lender’s pricing history. Fast forward to now, they’re a specialist lender with broad criteria with pricing that’s suitable for just-off-high-street customers.
Pepper Money’s two-year fixed rates have come down considerably in recent months and now sit below its own five-year fixed range, while the underwriting and criteria the lender built its name on haven’t changed at all.
Brokers shouldn’t have to choose between price and flexibility
Customers want a competitive rate, and that matters. But choosing the right mortgage rarely comes down to price on its own. Alongside price, brokers are weighing the customer’s circumstances, lender criteria, underwriting approach, service and overall value. Those factors often determine which lenders make the shortlist in the first place.
The right outcome for a customer usually comes from weighing all of that together, not from picking the lowest rate and stopping there.
For customers whose circumstances sit just-off high street criteria, there’s long been an assumption that brokers must trade off between competitive pricing and specialist dedicated underwriters. Lenders across the specialist space are investing in pricing and underwriting expertise at the same time, not treating one as the price of the other.
Pepper Money has done both, moving its two-year fixed pricing down while keeping the inclusive criteria and human underwriting on which it built its name. For brokers, that’s a reason to take another look at lenders they haven’t shortlisted in a while, particularly for two-year fixed cases where pricing has shifted.
Making space for a second look
Short-term fixes aren’t going anywhere. Customers still want the flexibility of reviewing their rate in a couple of years, not five.
“The question for many customers isn’t simply whether a two-year or five-year fixed rate is cheaper on day one. It’s also about how long they want to commit for in a market where the direction of rates remains uncertain. A two-year fixed rate can give customers the confidence of payment stability now, with the flexibility to review their options sooner. That’s where brokers are taking another look at Pepper and finding a proposition that may suit more cases than they expected,” Brailsford, explained.
That second look doesn’t need to complicate the sourcing process. Sometimes it’s as simple as checking the rate sheet again, speaking to a BDM, or testing a case that might previously have been placed elsewhere.
There’s a difference between knowing the market and knowing it so well that the answer starts to feel automatic. The best sourcing decisions leave room for something to have changed.
That may mean a lender appearing in a case where it wouldn’t have featured before, or a product being worth a closer look than its reputation might suggest.
Experience still matters, but so does the willingness to test it.
This article was produced in partnership with Pepper Money
