Banking and Mortgages

JulieGeorgiana

My husband and I are looking into buying our first house within the next year or two. I have always been under the impression that the longer you have been with your bank the more likely you are to get a mortgage.

My Husband has been with his bank since he was 18 (14 years), these are now joint accounts. We are thinking of moving ALL of our bank accounts to a new provider and closing the exsisting ones as they are not financially doing much for us, and the financial incentive to move is £150 between us, plus better interest rates.

What I would really like to know is, does it pay to be loyal? Especially when thinking of getting a mortgage.

Our options are:

1) Not move accounts
2) Move all our accounts
3) move all our accounts, but leave 1 current account open and unused at the old bank.

Please advise.

Julie

Wh05apk

Won't make a massive difference, most lenders use 100+ factors when they credit score, so length of time with your bank could be worth less than 1% of your total score, the only exception being if you bank with Barclays, they have a "pre-approved mortgage limit" (paml) for each customer, which can over -ride normal multiples, so if you are tight on income, you may find Woolwich will give you a little more.

mij544

Increasingly some lenders are doing loyalty mortgages, but the criteria for these at the moment is normally paying in you salary of at least £1,000ish a month for 3 months or so to qualify.

Barclays and Santander are the prime suspects at present, and they might have something on your file called a paml, which is a pre approved mortgage limit.

The bottom line though is if you both have a history of addresses on the voters role, have a steady and sufficient income which is provable through P60's and wageslips, and traceable to a UK bank account then you will be fine if the income multiples stack up.

Talk to a good broker at the time rather than go straight to the bank though, as this is much more likely to give you the best deal.

Good luck

Mike

JulieGeorgiana

Thank you for your excellent advice. My Husband and I both have an exceptional credit score, with no debts and reasonable savings. So I don't think moving accounts will harm our chances. I think we are going to go for it for the £150 incentive, because it'll go in the 'mortgage deposit fund' and help us towards our goal.

Mij544 we will definatly be seeking advice from a broker when we come to buying a house, thank you so much for that information.