Mortgage applications

sdomigid

Hi,

We have had an offer accepted on a house, and this weds/fri we are visting 5 banks to look at their mortgage deals and decide which is the best for us. (we have two mortgage in principles from hsbc and nationwide).

My question is, someone commented that the more banks you visit, and the more your credit history is checked, the worse your credit history becomes.

Don't they just do soft checks during the initial stages of mortgage hunting?


My second question is.... fixed or tracker? If fixed, how long do you think would be best?


Any suggestions for a mortgage? We are first time buyers with 25% deposit on a 160k house.

Thanks for the help.

KieranB

If you have a credit check done with every bank then yes it will have quite a large effect on your rating.. The fifth bank will see you have had 4 credit checks with other banks - this doesnt help your credit score at all.

If you have perfect credit it should be fairly easy to compafe best rates without going for an appointment. Why not check out rates online or speak to a mortgage broker?

Kavanne

Make it clear you do not want to make any applications and you just want basic quotes. If necessary, make sure you don't give them personal info like name, address, and DOB, without those they can't check your history.

Or browse online instead of visiting the banks. You can often filter their deals by LTV, fixed, tracker, etc

Or you could consult an independent advisor

sdomigid

Thanks for the advice, we have changed tacks, and may cancel the appointments and see a local FA.

Seems the better option.

natman

Hi,

I agree with some posts the more formal checks the 'worse' the credit report looks.................

Ok I have given a little bit of advice before on the site and I am happy to repeat myself as buying a house is really hard work and the more support and planning the better here goes -
I would defo lok at chatting to a financial advisor, just be careful not to get involved in too much insurance talk, you can pick all the insurances up on line - house, life, accident etc.

But a good mortgage advisor will know the market well, and will be able to support you in this very weird financial time.

A tip from me - only an opinion mind
We bought our first house some time ago and just for ease of working out lets say our house was £100,000.
I was putting a deposit down of £30,000 ( this basically was all my savings)
We needed a mortgage for £70,000.

The mortgage company carried out a survey and stated that the house was only worth £99,000, because of some mortar that needed replacing in a section of brickwork.
I was ok with this - well so I thought, but the Mortgage company said the £70,000 Mortgage i wanted would be dropped to £69,000 becasue of the valuation.

I asked the seller to drop £1000 - they wouldnt
I asked the Building society to give me the £70,000 mortgage as the house was still( in their eyes) worth £99,000, but they refused.
I had no spare money to add as i had used it all with the initial deposit - i lost the house.

I think all i am saying is - give yourself some financial flexibility - if you have 20% - 30% deposit, maybe use 25% as a deposit, and once you move in, see about making a few overpayments if you wanted............
Hope that makes sense.

Well done for saving, this shoud hopefully stand you in good stead.
I would also if you have not, look at your budgets for stuff you will need money for initially and money for routine bills etc.

Radsteral

i looked first with natwest and they offered 5.4 percent interest with 17 percent deposit i had..
strangely the 3 mortgage advisers i consulted later, had flashy laptops with mortgage ready aplications but none of them could see the natwest offer - they all were ''whole market''
then i read on the bbc news website '' banks are offerning best deals to client who visit at branch ''
as above .. its a starange financial situation and you need to be on top of the game ..

_Andy_

If you want to compare deals, just go to the lenders websites, saves going in to see them,.

sdomigid

Thanks for he help.

Natman, we've put about 7k to one side for appliances, fees and a 'rainy day' pot.

minimike2

Radsteral wrote: »

i looked first with natwest and they offered 5.4 percent interest with 17 percent deposit i had..
strangely the 3 mortgage advisers i consulted later, had flashy laptops with mortgage ready aplications but none of them could see the natwest offer - they all were ''whole market''
then i read on the bbc news website '' banks are offerning best deals to client who visit at branch ''
as above .. its a starange financial situation and you need to be on top of the game ..

Natwest do not sell their residential mortgage range through brokers, only thier buy-to-lets.

The residential deals come through to brokers under RBS and First Active (all part of the same group).