If you’re ready to do some serious comparison shopping, you’re in the right place.

I’ve made it my business to examine the many lenders and brokers who offer various loans for refinancing and debt consolidation. Not everyone makes the cut — there are plenty of bad ones that you’ll never see listed on these pages, and even a few good ones who simply don’t provide enough information.

• What’s the difference between a lender and a broker?

Simply put, a lender (usually a bank) actually has their own product, whereas a broker serves as a middleman between you and the lender.

You might think that going straight to the lenders would therefore be simpler and cheaper, but that’s just not always the case. For one thing, brokers get ‘wholesale’ rates from lenders, whereas dealing directly with the bank will usually just get you the ‘retail’ rate. Banks also tend to be more conservative and bureaucratic than brokers.

Many people find it much simpler to deal with a broker, because they’ll take care of much of the haggling and legwork. This may not make much of a difference to people who have no trouble qualifying for any number of loans…but for people who may struggle to get a mortgage that they can afford, a broker knows many ’tricks’ that could make the difference!

On the other hand, if you have an existing relationship with a lender (say, the one who has your current mortgage, and/or bank accounts), you may be able to get a ‘preferred customer’ break that would be as good or better than anything a broker can provide. And it must be said that most banks are established, respected, and most importantly protected and regulated.

Oh, and one other difference: there’s a little something called a yield-spread premium (YSP). We don’t have enough space to really explain the topic, but it’s basically an extra amount that brokers and lenders can use in different ways to tailor the loan to the borrower. The difference is that brokers are required by law to disclose the YSP, whereas lenders are not.