First time buyer help needed

toon85140

Hi me and my girlfriend have found a house that we really want to buy. It's for 139000 and we have a 15% deposit of £21k. My gf has perfect credit history, no problems at all. I was stupid when I went to uni and got my self in debt with credit cards and overdrafts. Nearly 4 years later I have paid off 75% of it. I have my overdraft of £1500 that will be paid by the summer and I have another overdraft that is a default which I have finished paying today. I haven missed any payments in over 2 years, have a good wage and have checked my credit score and have a score of 853. The only black mark is this bow settled default.

My question is is whether I have a hope in hell of getting a mortgage or if I should not even try?

Advice needed please!! Thanks!

tuftyclub

guess it depends on what you both earn...

Thrugelmir

If you've a deposit , then first of all use it to clear your debts. The sooner you clear your slate totally the better.

MarsdenCuckoo

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you've a deposit , then first of all use it to clear your debts. The sooner you clear your slate totally the better.

Sorry, each to their own and all that but I totally disagree.

OK if talking about one person with an overdraft and capital then, yes, pay it off but if the capital belongs to one and the overdraft another then a little care needs to be taken about 'the bigger picture'.

MarsdenCuckoo

toon85140 wrote: »

Hi me and my girlfriend have found a house that we really want to buy. It's for 139000 and we have a 15% deposit of £21k. My gf has perfect credit history, no problems at all. I was stupid when I went to uni and got my self in debt with credit cards and overdrafts. Nearly 4 years later I have paid off 75% of it. I have my overdraft of £1500 that will be paid by the summer and I have another overdraft that is a default which I have finished paying today. I haven missed any payments in over 2 years, have a good wage and have checked my credit score and have a score of 853. The only black mark is this bow settled default.

My question is is whether I have a hope in hell of getting a mortgage or if I should not even try?

Advice needed please!! Thanks!

Short answer is that you won't know until you try but if your girlfriend's salary can service the mortgage then it may be better to let her go ahead and not link your credit reference to hers at this stage. (They will be linked anyway once you move in together and start being jointly responsible for bills.) Of course, if you do go down that route it will be up to her whether your name is mentioned at all or whether you become a 'paying lodger'. Who knows, it may work out better for you both if she has the 'guaranteed income' of a lodger - there used to be a tax-free scheme of letting a room up to a certain limit? Anyone know if that still exists? (Sorry if that's a stupid suggestion)

Good luck.

Thrugelmir

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Sorry, each to their own and all that but I totally disagree.

OK if talking about one person with an overdraft and capital then, yes, pay it off but if the capital belongs to one and the overdraft another then a little care needs to be taken about 'the bigger picture'.

Then you have to weigh up how much you really want something. As a poor credit record will count against both parties even though only one originally incurred the debt.

What's required here is a demonstration of the ability to manage ones financial affairs. Deluding oneself by having seperate pots , capital and debt doesn't work I'm afraid. Tackle the most important issue first, debt.

If there are issues about the deposit being joint there are easy ways around this. That can be addressed when a property is purchased.