Reassurance needed!

elpobre_2

Hi all, first post here, sorry to wade straight in with loads of questions, but maybe its best just to stick them all in one post:

I have had a lot of debt on credit cards this last year or two (was £23k at end of 2009). Happily, I have been able to clear all of that this month (bar about £400 anyway) and although much of the time I was paying minimum payments, I have never been late paying and never defaulted on a payment.

I have about 15k outstanding on a personal loan with NR at present...though I would only need 12k to clear it as they refund a chunk of the interest if its settled early.

I am planning to apply for an interest free mortgage shortly. The questions are:

1/ Given that I have only just cleared some hefty credit card balances (which I am pretty sure would have had a negative impact on my credit score), should I wait until the balances on the credit cards are shown as being clear with the credit reference agencies before I apply for a mortgage? Or will they put more weight on what is on the application form (obviously I would be able to prove the cards balances are now nil).

2/ Are interest only mortgages hard to get now? I understand that I would need to set up a repayment vehicle.

3/ I would like to borrow 5k more than I would need to settle the existing mortgage with a view to adding my annual bonus at the of this year to clear the NR loan. Is this likely to be an issue?

The pertinent figures are: Salary = £20k, guaranteed bonus £6.5k, house value 110-115k, looking to borrow 81k.

Thanks in advance for any help.