Rebuilding Credit etc

ic31420

My girlfriend has had some trouble paying her bills over the last few years, before we got together...

She has never had a CCJ however has missed credit card payments and loan payments here and there in years gone by (18months - 4yrs ago), and has also had trouble paying quarterly utility bills to the point they put her on a pay as you go meter.

In the past 18months she has agreed a payment plan with her creditors via payplan, and will be looking to have repaid in full by September, some 6months ahead of schedule. At the start of this her debts amounted to around 8-10k. and in recent months is paying 800 per month off.

After that date we will be looking to be buying a house together, rent dead money, just paying other peoples mortgages etc...

I have a c. £40k deposit so that shouldn't be an issue as we will be looking to buy at around the 100-120k mark... We both earn c. 25k. Other than the buying costs we shouldn't need much else as between us we have white goods furniture etc.

I have excellent (as far as i know) credit score, multiple credit cards never having missed a payment always paid in full each month etc.

Will the girlfriends historic (admittedly recently historic) misbehavior affect our chances of obtaining a mortgage and is there anything we should be doing now to sort it out and lay the foundations?

downnotout

Defaults are registered on credit reference agencies for a period of 6 years from the date of default. This will have an impact on her credit file for that period of time.

ic31420

downnotout wrote: »

Defaults are registered on credit reference agencies for a period of 6 years from the date of default. This will have an impact on her credit file for that period of time.

Will this have a disastrous consequence for our mortgage application. At the levels we are looking for I could get a mortgage on my own, but that is not really what i/she/we want.

One of the reasons she is in the situation she is in is because of an ex partner putting all the debt on her shoulders / in her name then disappearing.

Gordon_Hose

If your partner is with Payplan I would expect that her creditors have defaulted her. As downnotout stated these stay on her file for 6 years. They drop off whether they are paid or not.

Having a default means she will be rejected by all the mainstream lenders.

If you do manage to get a mortgage remember you will then be financially linked, so all her bad credit will affect you. Personally, if I was you, I'd get a mortgage on my own for the time being with the view to adding her once her file is clear.

The best thing for her to do now is to pay everything on time to build up those green circles for when any defaults do drop off.

Have you got her credit file from the CRAs to see what is on there yet?

ic31420

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

If your partner is with Payplan I would expect that her creditors have defaulted her. As downnotout stated these stay on her file for 6 years. They drop off whether they are paid or not.

If it makes any difference she was not compelled into payplan, she was making the payments just fed up of being chased continually and having to pay xx many diff people monthly.

Having a default means she will be rejected by all the mainstream lenders.

If you do manage to get a mortgage remember you will then be financially linked, so all her bad credit will affect you. Personally, if I was you, I'd get a mortgage on my own for the time being with the view to adding her once her file is clear.

The best thing for her to do now is to pay everything on time to build up those green circles for when any defaults do drop off.

That is largely what I was thinking, if we make a joint app that is rejected will that affect my subsequent lone applications?

Have you got her credit file from the CRAs to see what is on there yet?

Not as yet, she only has internet on her phone, so it is not ideal really we need to be able to sit down in front of a proper screen to do it best i think.

Gordon_Hose

All that will show is a search for a mortgage, it doesn't stipulate whether it was rejected. However, any subsequent applications will search and see this previous search and wonder why you're making another application.

Bella_M_2

Hi,

I was in a similar position to your girlfriend when me and my partner decided to move in together. He was absolutely brilliant with money and had a great credit rating but I had a poor rating and many defaults etc.
We bought a flat but the mortgage was solely in my partners name and even though we're now married we have no financial link.
This was and still is the best move for us as any time we have had to take credit out it's been in his name and there's been no problems. I am now on track to rebuilding my credit history but it will be a long time before I would attempt to link us financially and probably before he trusted that I wouldn't mess it up for us.
It's not the best feeling in the world to have to rely on your partner for credit/mortgage but you can make it work if you're willing to accept it and move past it.

Good luck to both of you.

Bella

camuk81

By my calculations you may just be able to do it on your salary if someone will lend you 3.5 times your salary.

I'm afraid time is a great healer with credit reports and this is the one thing you don't have to your advantage.

ic31420

camuk81 wrote: »

By my calculations you may just be able to do it on your salary if someone will lend you 3.5 times your salary.

I'm afraid time is a great healer with credit reports and this is the one thing you don't have to your advantage.

Borrowing on my own will not be an issue as £100k property is feasible and i have a 40k deposit.

It is more that i would like the g/f to be more involved

a) to help her feel more a part and that the house will be "ours"
b) to give her the security of joint ownership,
c) to help her leave her troubled financial past and past relationships behind which are the cause of her debt.
d) to help rebuild her credit and to some extent wouldn't mind paying more (within reason) to achieve these goals.