How bad are late payments?!

jaiye1985

Firstly many thanks for all the info on this board that has saved me a lot of time and money!

My situation is that I am looking to apply for a FTB mortgage in the next 9 months. I have no ccjs, no arrears, bankruptcy etc etc. I earn £39000 and have no outstanding credit.

However what I do have is a total of 2 late payments on 2 separate accounts within the last twelve months. So my question is how big an issue are these likely to be? Will these blemishes prevent me from applying to various high street lenders?

It may also be worth noting that each late payment was no more than 1 month late and as such show on my credit file as "1".

Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

So my question is how big an issue are these likely to be?

Pretty much a disaster for about 3-4 years. To counter them you need to have bigger deposits and/or not be pushing the affordability limits.

If you are pushing limits then you will find many lenders not interested.

milliebear00001

It's not necessarily a disaster. I completed in November and had two '1' scored late payments on my credit card - non within the last 12 months. My broker had no issues finding me a mortgage on that basis. I had highish (4 x salary) multiples and a decent proportion of my income from benefits. I did though, have a 25% deposit.

Speak to a broker.

hillcats

Make sure you pay EVERYTHING on time, it could work out very expensive otherwise.

Try thinking how the lender may think in this situation:
Will we get our money all the time, on time as agreed every month? Hmmm !

efunc

I have one late payment on my current account from a couple of months back too. I went to hsbc to enquire about having it removed and spoke to the branch manager. She said they can't remove it, but for the purposes of getting a mortgage it will be completly irrelevant and should not affect my offer! Perhaps hsbc have different criteria, I haven't spoken to anyone else. I'm still not conviced though.

flexrider

Late Payments stay up to a year so i am up to belief i was told that by someone who worked at credit expert when i used to be a member.Its stuff like defult or non payment that stays for six whole years, just make sure they can show a lender you have pay problems by missing no more payments, but you can agure this as wages late in ect, but all lenders have their own set of rules on who is risk to lend too. so your manager may be right

efunc

flex, is it worth adding a note on my file to explain the circumstances? Even if the circumstances are quite complex? Roughly how many words/sentences/paragraphs are available to explain the situation?

Optimisticred

Just expanding this question further what kind of effect will say 8 late payments but 3 years agao have an effect on a credit score? Thanks,

pmduk

There is no such thing as a general credit score. Each lender has their own criteria for calculating a score which is unique to them. Some of the credit agencies sell you access to a score which isn't worth the paper it's written on. Don't ever pay for them

Optimisticred

Without doubt i say ONLY use Experian and/or Equiafx the rest really are poor and almost verging on fraud with the lack of results they provide!

Experian_company_representative

There are only three credit reference agencies in the UK: Experian, Equifax and Callcredit, listed in order of popularity (for lenders and consumers). Be very careful if any other organisation offers to sell you a copy of your credit report.

James Jones