Advice wanted - first-time buyers

Lucyjane

Hi,

I am wondering if somebody could give me a little advice please. My husband and I are first time buyers looking to get our first mortgage soon. I am 24 and earn £32k a year and my husband is 30 and earns £46k per year. Between us we also take home around £14k in bonuses per year, although these aren't guaranteed. We have saved £35k for a deposit for our first home and are looking to buy in the South East. We're hoping to take advantage of the stamp duty freeze on a property under £250K so have decided that this is our top budget, although I believe the banks would lend us enough for more. Therefore we would like to lay down a 10% deposit of £25k leaving us money left over for any extras we need to pay and savings.

The deal we are currently looking at is the new HSBC Lifetime Tracker first-time buyers mortgage, tracking at 3.99% above the BoE base rate. Our main concern, having heard so much bad press recently about the amount of people being turned down for mortgages, is whether we will be approved or not. We both have minimal outstanding debt, my husband has a couple of grand on a student loan and I have about £2K on a car loan which will be paid easily by Feb next year. My two credit cards are all paid in full every month. We have checked our credit scores recently and mine comes out as 'excellent' with Experian at 979 and my husband's comes out as 'good' with 938. His has dropped from 959 in the last 3 months although I suspect that is because he has no credit accounts apart from his mobile phone.

My main question is - do you think we will be approved? We have been saving for so long and working so hard on our credit scores over the past few years that we would be devastated if we weren't and got a rejection. We just really want to go for it now. My husband was in bad debt about 7 years ago (a scottish Trust Deed) although nothing is showing up now on his credit report. Obviously we can more than easily afford the repayments so I guess what I am asking is if we do fail the credit scoring for any reason would they be able to sign it off in branch? I am sure I have heard of many cases where HSBC (the Branch Manager, for example) can sign off mortgages in branch for under £250K - is this still the case?

If anybody could give me some comments as so our chances it would be most appreciated!!

Thanks!

VIGILANT22

Q: My main question is - do you think we will be approved?

Surely you know this is down to the lender who is lending you the money!!??

Yr credit history last 6 years
Go online get copies of your credit reports and see a whole of market adviser..you shouldnt be chasing rates...you should be looking at who is willing to lend..as altho the TD has dropped off the credit file, you will still have to disclose when asked.....

slummymummyof3

Is it necessary to keep as much as 25k in savings and only put down a 10% deposit - the more you can put down the better chance you have of being accepted and probably the better interest rate.

Lucyjane

Thank you for your comments.

I do understand thaat it is down to the lender but just wanted to know if anybody had any further comments or experiences. Can HSBC approve mortgages in branch for under £250K or in other circumstances? I am just concerned, having waited for so long, that we still might not be approved due to something that happened so long ago. I was wondering if, given the information I had provided (our scores etc), whether anybody thought we would have a good chance? We are obviously in a good financial situation now so I am hoping this would have a strong bareing on the lenders decision.

We do have copies of both our credit reports and there is nothing bad at all on either of them. My score is excellent and my husband's score is good.

Slummymummyof3 - We wouldn't be keeping £25K in savings... We have £35K now, would put down 10% so £25K, leaving us with £10K. This would go towards moving costs, fees and any work we need to do when we move in. We can more than afford the repayments if we only put down 10% and are happy with that.

Thanks again for your help and comments!

Thrugelmir

I am just concerned, having waited for so long, that we still might not be approved due to something that happened so long ago.

Then no one on here is in a position to comment. Banks keep their own credit history files.

Coveredinbees!!!!

If you can't get a mortgage with those figures god help everyone else

worriedindebt

one tip i will give is to pay off any existing borrowing before applying as even a small loan can have a major impact on affordability with banks. ideally if you both have no external borrowing then you will be better placed.
go into any bank and do an affordability check you will be surprised at how a small loan or c/c can impact what they will lend you these days
good luck with your app though