Bank reference for renting house

Firsttimebuyer_4

Hi,

Anyone know what is actually written in a Bank Reference?

I've just put down a deposit on a house I'm going to rent and they've asked for a bank reference. I've got nothing against it but I'm worried what the bank will say. The situation is that I will pay all the rent in the first 6 months as my other half is currently finishing her degree. She is guaranteed a job in September and will then pay the some of the rent.

The letter to the bank states "Is x good for £xxx per month?".

What do they look at?

1. Do they look at what money I've got left every month?
2. Do they look at how much plus i get every month (income - outgoings)

If they look at my income vs outgoings they will see that it does not mount up to the rent I'm going to pay (far from it). However, there are other factors that the bank reference cannot take into account such as, i'm moving closer to my work and will save £300 per month in petrol (i've been commuting 120 miles per day the last 6 months). I also got a fair amount stashed up in savings (with another bank) and i recently got a fair pay rise. I've not got anything negative on my account. I've always been in the plus even though I've got an overdraft facility with them.

I've gone through my finances and I know i can afford this, but somehow this "bank reference" worries me because if they look at my bank ins and outs at the moment it will look as if i cant afford it. My salary is at the moment just over 2 times the rent until my partner starts paying as well in October.

Should I be worried or am i worrying over nothing? Anyone knows what these statements look like? What does it take to get a "no he cant afford this" from the Bank?

Firsttimebuyer_4

I will feed back here once everything is ok...or not...

I will know if they take the bank reference or not since the reference fee is taken directly out of my bank account by the bank (not by the EA).

The admin fee i've paid for the property is £95.00 and that's all i have paid and all i will pay to the EA. I've heard of fees a LOT worse than that!

PS! My name is firsttimebuyer as we're renting for a year while we build up some funds to purchase our own house...incase you're wondering

Meeten

it could be worthwhile taking a copy of your statement with savings stash to t he EA - assuming that you want to rent that place, a -ve response from the bank can hinder that.

I do think that you have nowt to worry about 0 the bank ref will more likely check that you are not in serious debt / owing loads.....

HTH

rach29

usual reply assuming you have no problems with your bank is along the lines of:

Good for the purpose of £xxx per month

Or alternatively if the bank are not too sure, The proposed rent of £xxx appears high however we do not feel that the customer would enter into any commitment they could not maintain.

If the response was scenario 2 then you may wish to show your evidence to the agent but if you don't have any problems with your bank then scenario 1 is the most likely response.

Firsttimebuyer_4

Just thought I'd do an update. Spoke to the estate agent today and they said all references were good

I'm gonna ask them for a copy of the bank reference though. I can do that can't I (since it's data on me they have to release it).

kit

Bank reference is usually just a standard letter in which a member of bank staff has handwritten in certain details relating to you.

They usually say how long you have been with the bank and confirm that they think you will be able to pay the rent. I have never seen a bank give details of the amount of money you have or anything like that.
It is all very very basic and not really worth the paper its written on!

loulou41

When son was renting a room, he had to have a bank reference and a personal reference as well. The Agency wants to know whether you can afford to pay the rent. His Bank HSBC did charge for this service.

Firsttimebuyer_4

Barclays charged me £10!