Worried prior to funds being released

shimano

My mortgage offer with Santander is done, funds are prebooked and ready to go.

I am now approaching exchange/completion (date to be set very soon) as searches and queries reach finalisation.

I have a credit card balance (fully declared at application and no problems as my credit history is squeaky clean) which I want to transfer before I have to pay interest. I applied for 3 cards over the past week (1 is for the balance transfer, 1 is for work as we have corporate AMEX but I want my own AMEX so I can earn more points and will be paid off in full by reimbursement by employer and 1 is for household spending, which is a Tesco card, to get the extra points etc, again paid off in full).

Net basis is no different in money owed (in fact its went down since the application). They were all accepted straight away.

My worry is that for some bizarre reason, the AMEX and the balance transfer application went through as 2 searches each. I phoned both querying and they were not sure why, though 2 applications existed for each. Their only explanation was potentially my browser which I used (ie submit twice). I am trying to get these searches removed (as it shows as 5!) and waiting feedback from both this week. I didnt want to wait any longer to apply as interest will kick in, plus I need to travel to US for work fairly soon and need it in place.

I am worried as I hear that there may be further searches done just before completion, and Santander pick this up as a problem. I called them to doublecheck and the person I spoke to said that it is unlikely they will check again as the funds are ready to be released and even if they did, they would only look at the amount owed, and if that hasn't went up massively, they won't be bothered as my history is clean. They would only be concerned if I used them to pay for deposit etc, but since proof of deposit and stamp duty etc was shown at application (and again recently to conveyancor) she said this shouldn't be a problem.

Am I worrying pointlessly? I iterate again this is not me applying for extra credit to cover costs of the house buying, just me being more sensible with my balances and getting rewards from future expenditure which would have been from current account anyway. Everyone I speak to say it isnt worth worrying about, but as a FTB it is killing me

CloudCuckooLand

The time to worry about such things was before you hit the "Apply" button.

What is done is done.

The Santander person may be right, in general. If a computer decides to randomly audit your case this week, they might not be.

To help others avoid similar stress, how about putting a signature on your ID;

"In addition to scrupulously checking your credit record, Organise all your bank accounts and credit cards well in advance of making a mortgage application. Do not make any fresh applications during the mortgage process."

shimano

CloudCuckooLand wrote: »

The time to worry about such things was before you hit the "Apply" button.

What is done is done.

The Santander person may be right, in general. If a computer decides to randomly audit your case this week, they might not be.

To help others avoid similar stress, how about putting a signature on your ID;

"In addition to scrupulously checking your credit record, Organise all your bank accounts and credit cards well in advance of making a mortgage application. Do not make any fresh applications during the mortgage process."

You are right, but I want everything to be in place now, plus we were expecting to have completed by now, but we lost 4-5 weeks as the seller had personal/business issues which caused the process to grind to a halt.

I personally don't see why they would bother if the amount owed was lower than when the offer went through, and there is a rationale explanation (i.e. I'm not going straight out to use them to pay off fees..), and the person I spoke to agreed.

I hear about "horror stories" about mortgage offers being withdrawn, but these seem to be reasons such as fraud, credit checks not happening in the first place, recent bankruptcy etc...as the wording on the offer states "financial circumstances" and Santander are agnostic to wether your CC debt is across 1 or 10 cards (they only look at the total) it should be ok I think.

but then it's natural to worry, right?

GMS

You should be fine but your timing could have been a lot better.

It is all well and good saying the balances are the same so no more debt but from a lender point of view you have access to more credit than before. This could, in theory lead to excessive debts in the future and a struggle to maintain finances.

Not suggesting for a minute that you would but that is how it would be viewed. Often just having the facility to run up debt can go against you.

You would have been much better seking advice prior to applying for the additional credit. Regardless of a delay in completion due to vendor's, you still applied without having completed.

shimano

Well what I have done is I have called them to reduce the limit on new and existing as they gave me a huge limit anyway, so the available credit on a net basis is actually going to be lower now, and utilisation overall will be roughly the same (one of my original cards had a huge limit, but I was only using 15%)

jamesd

Bad timing but what you're doing to reduce the potential for trouble seems reasonable. After exchange your solicitor will send them a certificate of title with schedule for completion. When they receive that they will do any last minute checks that they want to do. That may include credit checks or asking for copies of more recent bank statements and payslips, depending on how long it was since the original application.

So long as your position is roughly comparable to your position at the time the offer was made you shouldn't have a problem.

shimano

Thanks all, yes the timing was not good, but didnt want to pay interest plus I needed an expenses card ASAP (I'm not keen on spending thousands on current account!) as I may be sent to US at anytime!

Should be ok I guess, I will be paying it all off anyway in Jan when bonus comes in

luckyfool

shimano wrote: »

Thanks all, yes the timing was not good, but didnt want to pay interest plus I needed an expenses card ASAP (I'm not keen on spending thousands on current account!) as I may be sent to US at anytime!

Should be ok I guess, I will be paying it all off anyway in Jan when bonus comes in

Was the prospect of paying a few quid in interest by waiting a month or two until you completed on the mortgage that horrific a prospect? Is it worth the extra stress and worry that a last minute credit check by Santander could lead to the offer being withdrawn due to your credit score falling because of these searches/applications?

I get that you wanted these cards and the reasons, none of them though seem proportionate or big enough to potentially jeopardise a transaction as large as a mortgage and house purchase (especially your 1st). In all likelihood you will be fine ... I just don't see why you did it.

shimano

luckyfool wrote: »

Was the prospect of paying a few quid in interest by waiting a month or two until you completed on the mortgage that horrific a prospect? Is it worth the extra stress and worry that a last minute credit check by Santander could lead to the offer being withdrawn due to your credit score falling because of these searches/applications?

I get that you wanted these cards and the reasons, none of them though seem proportionate or big enough to potentially jeopardise a transaction as large as a mortgage and house purchase (especially your 1st). In all likelihood you will be fine ... I just don't see why you did it.

The only thing that I am worried now about is the new searches, I already proved I have the money (with surplus savings) and can do again. The searches should go back down to 3 in past several months anyway once Experian remove the wrongful dupes, and they think it would be extremely unlikely that it would have any impact given my conduct of credit etc.

I haven't heard anywhere (I have asked around and searched hard, and asked solicitor, she said that in all her time doing conveyancing the only time anyone has had an offer taken back at last minute was due to job losses or a last minute bankruptcy/CCJ issuance, and they are a big conveyancing firm here who deal with a lot of transactions) of anyone having lost a sale on similiar, all I have seen or heard is fraud in application, losing job, taking out a loan just for deposit etc, in fact one of the chaps here I spoke to recently got a few cards out to buy furniture at 0%, got searched just before completion and they never asked him anything.

As far as i see it, if they search, they may query what they were for, or spot that the total balance has went down with no financial impact, or they will ask me why, for which there is a legit reply. I was fast tracked originally due to having an excellent credit rating, so it's not like I was borderline or anything. If I had a default, went out and took a big loan or missed a payment, I'd understand if they withdrew. But surely not this!

I probably should have waited yes, but given that a business trip to US is going to be costly (000s) and imbursement takes few weeks, I don't want to use current account, a balance transfer card I have or savings...