Agreement in Principle - A quick question

ollyfarrow

How thorough is the credit check that they do for an AIP decision?

As I posted in another thread, my partner and I are looking to buy our first place. We have a 125k deposit and are looking to buy at around 250k, so we have a nice 50% deposit.

My partner has two settled defaults (Nov 04 & Dec 06) and a CCJ unsatisfied (Jan 05) which she is about to pay off.

I have gone through two separate Agreement in Principle decisions, one with HSBC and one with Post Office, and both came back as yes decisions.

Does this mean they checked my partner’s credit history and they are okay with it or not?

ollyfarrow

Bump:kisses:

Any ideas?

benjo

I dont know the answer to this question, all I can say is that when I applied for a mortgage this year the lender gave an AIP following a 'soft' credit search with Experian - they might well have checked the others too, but since I was only registered with Experian I dont know.

Following the AIP they went on to make a full mortgage offer in writing, which we accepted - no further search was ever recorded on Experian.

Like I said earlier perhaps they checked the other credit reference agencies but I didnt check that, they could have made a full search on Experian that was somehow never recorded.

ollyfarrow

Any other ideas people?

How deep was the AIP credit search? I've heard it's a 'soft' search, but surely it would bring up my partners defaults or CCJs?

I don't really want to make a joint application if it isn't going to work out and it's a waste of time.

My family will lend me the extra 20k needed if I need to put the mortgage in my name only, but I really don't want to do that unless it's a last resort.

Conrad

Impossible to know. Lenders make it up as they go along just now. Today I for the first time ever have had 2 separate lenders querry important matters AFTER full mortgage offers were granted - I kid you not.

You could ask from now until doomsday, but it will make no difference. Suck it and see.

wee_me_4

I work for a high st bank and know that the AIP is not worth the paper its written on!!

Basically its a provisional offer. If you decide to go ahead with mortgage its passed to the underwriting dept who can pull very specific details on your credit history, e.g if you state that you have 1 credit card and owe £1k on c/c but actually have 3 c/c and owe 6k they can see this.

i would not sign missives on the AIP wait untill your offer of loan is issued.

Jane61

I'm having the same problem...although I had a provisional offer, when it came back I was not accepted so now I am in fear of losing the property. Apparentl because I don't have any other loans and only 1 credit card which I have had since last oct and pay it off straight away...my credit scoring is only fair and this is not acceptable to get a mortgage although I would be putting down more than 50% deposit
Watching this thread with interest to see if someone can help me as well

wee_me_4

Do you have a seperate bill paying account at the bank(Pay all d/d's etc out of it and set up S/O every month into it to service a/c). This can improve your internal credit score. Also if you run your account to a low balance with no savings every month this can be detrimental.