Am I Mortgage-able?

Ms_Scarlett_2

Hello,

Yorkshire Building Society are taking about forever to process our application for AiP, much to the annoyance of us and our potential vendors, giving me plenty of time to get myself in a stress about it.

Just checked my credit score with Equifax and was pretty mortified to find that although my credit score seems pretty reasonable at a 456 light green "Good" (474 being the cut-off into the "Excellent" bright green catergory), it turns out I have been late on a horrifying 7 credit card payments since 2007. Worse still, 3 of these have been in the past 12 months.

All the lates are yellow "1"s if that tells you anything, and I have def never been late for more than a few days, if that. Embarrassingly, this is pure disorganisation rather than lack of money. I am absolutely horrified as I genuinely thought all that was ages ago, but it turns out I've been an idiot more recently than I had allowed myself to remember...

Aside from that, every other element of my score is Excellent with a couple of Goods. In the credit category I score Fair overall, but of the 7 different parts that make up that category I am excellent in 4 of them (long-standing accounts, plenty of access to credit etc), Good in two (I have had a loan in the past, although it is long since paid off) and Fair only in the payment history section, although I understand that's the bit that counts (just trying to offer a complete picture here).

The only exception to the overall Goods and Excellents is the Electoral Roll category, which is also Fair because when I lived in a shared house in London I never bothered to sign up as there weren't any important votes while I was there, I was only signed up for 1 of the 2 years I lived in my last place for similar reasons. We've only been living here for 2 years and although we've been signed up throughout, apparently they like 3 years, so Fair it is.

Do you think I'm sunk? I'm very stressed. My boyfriend has a pretty spotless credit history, although doesn't make use of the credit card he has access to, pays everything on time etc, and I'm terrified I'm going to scupper our chances of getting a good rate on our mortgage, not to mention blacken his credit history through our joint association.

He earns about £44k, I earn about £30k, we both get bonuses from time-to-time. We want to borrow £255k on a £340k property and obviously he couldn't borrow that on his own, so him applying singly isn't really an option. Do you think maybe they'll go easy on me because he's the main earner and has a good history, or are we just screwed??

Help! The stress is keeping me awake at night! YBS are so behind that our application from Wed 24th won't be viewed until early next week and I don't think I can stand another 3-4 sleepless nights!!!

Thrugelmir

Did you submit your application on the 24th August?

Ms_Scarlett_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Did you submit your application on the 24th August?

Yes. It got referred. This delay is no reflection on our personal application though (I don't think), as when I've rung to chase up, even before I've offered any ID details the guy/girl on the phone tell us that they're very behind, unprecedented interest in this 3.49% 5 year fix, blah blah in a way that suggests they're sick of saying the same things. Someone told me they just bought out Egg's mortgages bit but made all the old Egg staff redundant, so this could be a factor. No idea if that's true, though.

I know that's an insane time period. When we went through this process back in 2008 (got an AiP, agreed a price, bf got headhunted in a totally different area so we had to pull out) we got an AiP from Halifax in about an hour, but there just isn't anything out there to touch that rate at the moment, and now our application is in we don't want to make matters worse by applying elsewhere and incurring multiple searches.

GMS

Ms_Scarlett wrote: »

Yes. It got referred. This is no reflection on our personal application though, I don't think, as when I've rung to chase up, before offering any details relating to our personal application the guy/girl on the phone tell us that they're very behind, unprecedented interest in this 3.49% 5 year fix, blah blah in a way that suggests they're sick of saying the same things.

I know that's an insane time period. When we went through this process back in 2008 we got an AiP from Halifax in about an hour, but there just isn't anything out there to touch that rate at the moment, and now our application is in we don't want to make matters worse by applying elsewhere and incurring multiple searches.

Any referral is down to the individual application. You will probably find it is due to the missed credit card payments.

There should be options for you if YBS turn you down but you may need to look at lenders who will do it rather than the rates. Missing payments on credit takes you out of the squeaky clean customer profile they are looking for.

Ask them not to do any valuation until they approve the application. At least that way you will protect your valuation fee (if any)

Ms_Scarlett_2

GMS wrote: »

Any referral is down to the individual application. You will probably find it is due to the missed credit card payments.

There should be options for you if YBS turn you down but you may need to look at lenders who will do it rather than the rates. Missing payments on credit takes you out of the squeaky clean customer profile they are looking for.

Ask them not to do any valuation until they approve the application. At least that way you will protect your valuation fee (if any)

Sorry, I expressed myself poorly before - I meant the delay is no reflection on us personally. Every referred application is delayed at present.

Thanks for the advice though, and especially about the full application before valuation which seems very sound advice.

Are YBS known to be a lender that looks for people with a squeaky clean profile?

Thrugelmir

Rather waste time poring over a credit report. Spend your time managing your personal affairs better. Then you'll never have to worry about it.

From a lenders perspective there's no excuse for not paying the minimum payment required on a credit card by direct debit. As its reflection on your attitude towards money more than your organisation skills, i.e "only a few days late".

GMS

Ms_Scarlett wrote: »

Sorry, I expressed myself poorly before - I meant the delay is no reflection on us personally. Every referred application is delayed at present.

Thanks for the advice though, and especially about the full application before valuation which seems very sound advice.

Are YBS known to be a lender that looks for people with a squeaky clean profile?

You say you have 7 missed payments on a credit card, 3 in the last 12 months. You say they are all '1's' which means 1 month in arrears. If you had missed 1 month only and immediately rectified it to show as a '0' the following month it may be looked upon as a blip. The fact the you have done this on 3 occasions in 12 months would potentially lead to an underwriter viewing it as poor financial management and question how you would maintain a mortgage each month when you cannot pay a credit card.

The fact that you have been referred means you have an issue there. Nowhere near as big an issue as if it was declined but none the less there is something to suggest scrutiny from the underwriters.

You have mentioned in another thread that the deposit is gifted. This could cause an underwriter to question ability to service again as you have not saved for a deposit yet cannot meet your monthly credit payments. May not happen but it is a possibility.

Have you done a full affordability calculation on the YBS website? Check this is within lending limits. Looks ok on the face of it but credti commitments can lower the amount available substantially.

Ms_Scarlett_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Rather waste time poring over a credit report. Spend your time managing your personal affairs better. Then you'll never have to worry about it.

From a lenders perspective there's no excuse for not paying the minimum payment required on a credit card by direct debit. As its reflection on your attitude towards money more than your organisation skills, i.e "only a few days late".

My affairs have been well in order for the past nine months, and now I pay everything by direct debit, as I should have from the start, but it wasn't always like this as my credit report obviously shows.

I'm not expecting pity - I'm a big girl and this is totally my own doing - but I was hoping mortgage professionals might have some insight.

Guess we're screwed then.

As this application hasn't even been looked at yet, do you think I should ring and ask them to pull it if we're very unlikely to get accepted? My credit report says there has been a search done by YBS, but would that be just the preliminary one that made the difference between "auto-accept" and "referred"? Will the full underwriter search be a bigger, different one, or does that trace on my report suggest they already have my report but just haven't looked at it yet?

Sorry for all the questions and many thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer. I really appreciate it.

GMS

You are not screwed. It would have been a straight decline if you were.

If it was me I would let them look at it and see what they say. You may be ok, I was pointing out how they MAY view it.

They have done a search so should have access to your data. Once it gets looked at you should have an answer soon after that.

Have they given you any idea when it will be looked at?

Ms_Scarlett_2

Many thanks for all your help, GMS - all really useful info.

GMS wrote: »

Have you done a full affordability calculation on the YBS website? Check this is within lending limits. Looks ok on the face of it but credti commitments can lower the amount available substantially.

We should be well within the affordability limits. They say:

Based on what you have told us, you could borrow approximately £381874, however we may be able to lend you up to £414035 depending on the details of your application and your credit search results.

We want about 66% of that lower limit, and have a substantial deposit, so I guess at least we're not trying to borrow at the top end of what they would perceive to be our affordability limits.

Yes, I was already aware of the gifted deposit issue (not painting a great picture here, am I?). I know some lenders don't like that at all.

So I guess we'll see. Thanks again for any insight you can offer. Very grateful as I've got myself incredibly stressed out about this. I've let my boyfriend down very badly here and I'm really not proud of it.

Thrugelmir

You only applied on the 24th August. Last Monday was a bank holiday. So be patient. Constantly ringing the YBS isn't going to speed matters up. As you won't be allowed to speak directly to the underwriter handing your application.

Understandable why the vendor of the property is nervous having accepted your offer. Though that's none of your concern.

So best advice is to wait and see what unfolds.