New Buyer - Credit Rating Issue

Amy-louise_2

I hope that somebody is able to give me some guidance here.

Me and my partners are currently saving for a deposit for a mortage, we are going to start looking for a house after this time next year, by which point we will have saved around £25 - 35 K so far.

My problem is that currently I am worried about our credit scores, my partner has always lived at the same address and never been late on a payment however up until 12 months ago he had never had a credit card, he took one out to build his rating up and now has a 'good' rating.

My rating is 'Fair', I currently owe aroun £4.5 on credit cards which i have paid regularly for the past few years always above mimum payment, this amount should be cleared by this time next year. The only late payments on my accounts were 1 in 2008 and 2 in 2007 since then I have never missed a payment.

I believe that my rating is low due to moving a few times in the last few years and also the fact that I am using the majority of my available credit.

Does anybody have any ideas on how long it will take to repair my rating and how my situation will affect us getting a mortgage?

Any tips would be great, everytime i try to talk to my bank they offer me another credit card or tell me to make regular payments (WHICH I DO!) So a bit sick of generic advice!!

thank you

R_P_W

Hi, if it was me I would focus on paying the credit cards off as soon as possible especially if you are paying interest?

Myself and my wife have just successfully applied for a mortgage ourselves and even though our LTV wasnt too bad and our joint income was on paper more than enough to support our loan - it wasnt a walk in the park getting approved.

Not sure what level of loan you are looking at in a years time, but having £25k - £30k deposit sounds pretty healthy (unless in London). So I would pay the debt off and just have £5k less deposit.

Dave_Ham

Forget what the credit "score" is telling you

It is irrelevant and if you have not missed a payment since when you said, you will be absolutely fine..

This is a fact, they sell the service to you based upon giving you value.

You will be fine, just ensure you do not miss any payments between now and then and do use this time to clear down your debt - not from a banks perspective but for your own benefit when taking on a mortgage...

Amy-louise_2

We are looking to buy just outside of London and we are in Essex, I am hoping that you are right about 25 - 35k being healthy as I am hearing all sorts of horror stories about buyers not having enough!

It is reassuring to know that my credit rating will not be an issue though!

Thank you

Dave_Ham

So long as you are looking at lower than £250k and incomes are ok this should be fine, from my experience of Essex this should be achievable...

Good luck

andyp774

I would look at the Nationwide Save To Buy Scheme. My wife and I took this out last December and we are now just in the process of finalising the sale. We got a 5% deposit mortgage and all went through fine.

Like other people have said I would ensure that you are living in the same house for at least 2 years before applying for a mortgage as this is a big no no for the mortgage companies.

Ensure that you are on the electoral role straight away.

Hope this is decent information.

Good Luck xx

Amy-louise_2

Thank you.

I have moved so many times in the last few years (the joys of renting) by the time we buy the house I will have been on the electoral roll at my current address for around 18 -24 months, im hoping that will improve things.

I did look at the Save to Buy scheme and was really intereste by it. I would like to discuss it with someone before we move our savings to their scheme though, were you able to go into the bank and talk to an advisor when setting this up?

Thanks again

andyp774

Yes that is all we did. Went in got an appointment and hey presto within an hour we had the account and were on the way to getting the 5% mortgage