Halifax loans - help and information

stevenjames8

Hi, I'm new to this! Bit of background info. I have a Halifax ultimate reward bank account, I am on disability (the maximum you can get) and my wife works in full time for the government with an annual income of roughly £22k. We have fully paid off our mortgage on our house so our monthly outgoings are very little. I was wondering would Halifax approve a loan (I know it's just a guess but any help would be wonderful) and how long it would take to process. The sooner the better! We are looking at roughly £13/14k for various things paid over 7 years. Thanks very much for any info you can give me, very muh appreciated.

Tixy

Presumably you are thinking of a joint loan?

Do you have any existing debts at all?
What existing credit accounts do you both have? or have you had in the last few years?
I guess your reward account has an overdraft? do you use that? (constantly or every month or occasionally?)
What do your credit files show (in terms of any missed payments etc)?

How old is your wife? is she more than 7years from expected retirement?

Based on your income I imagine you'd be around the border for being accepted for that level of loan - so as always it would depend on other information.

As halifax are your own bank it might be worth enquiring in branch about whether you are pre-approved for any loans.

chanz4

Halifax loans are very expensive

stevenjames8

Tixy wrote: »

Presumably you are thinking of a joint loan?

Do you have any existing debts at all?
What existing credit accounts do you both have? or have you had in the last few years?
I guess your reward account has an overdraft? do you use that? (constantly or every month or occasionally?)
What do your credit files show (in terms of any missed payments etc)?

How old is your wife? is she more than 7years from expected retirement?

Based on your income I imagine you'd be around the border for being accepted for that level of loan - so as always it would depend on other information.

As halifax are your own bank it might be worth enquiring in branch about whether you are pre-approved for any loans.

Yea we'd be looking at a joint loan. I have an overdraft which I use but part of the loan would be to clear that, when asking about added income we have a lodger that pays £100 a week which is an extra £5200 a year, would I use that? I have no idea how loans works, as I've never had one! My wife is 52 so she's quite a way off retirement.

stevenjames8

chanz4 wrote: »

Halifax loans are very expensive

They are but presumably be the quickest as I bank with them? Part of the money is for my son, a deposit on a property, so generally the quicker the better

Tixy

The lodger income should not be included in household income.

Just one note of caution - the money for son's deposit - of this is a house purchase rather than a deposit for a rented property- will this be a gift to him or a loan?

stevenjames8

Tixy wrote: »

The lodger income should not be included in household income.

Just one note of caution - the money for son's deposit - of this is a house purchase rather than a deposit for a rented property- will this be a gift to him or a loan?

Ohh I thought it could be included as its extra income, ok thanks for that!

It's for a house purchase, does this make a difference? Could you explain please?

Tixy

His mortgage provider will care. In general it is not acceptable to them for him to borrow his deposit.
Some lenders will require something in writing to legally state it is a gift that doesn't need repaying (if it is a gift). If you are planning to loan it to him and him to repay then I would suggest he talks this through with his mortgage broker first before you start applying for loans.

I don't think lodger income would be acceptable to a potential lender - as it could stop at any time with no legal notice required from the lodger.

stevenjames8

Tixy wrote: »

His mortgage provider will care. In general it is not acceptable to them for him to borrow his deposit.
Some lenders will require something in writing to legally state it is a gift that doesn't need repaying (if it is a gift). If you are planning to loan it to him and him to repay then I would suggest he talks this through with his mortgage broker first before you start applying for loans.

I don't think lodger income would be acceptable to a potential lender - as it could stop at any time with no legal notice required from the lodger.

I didn't think of it like that! No it's a gift, we are not expected him to pay. The lodger is my other son, and he's actually in no rush to move out if that makes a difference hehe. Have you any idea how long Halifax would take to put the money in my account, if I applied Saturday morning and (fingers crossed) get accepted, we could and are willing to go into the local branch if necessary to speed it up. I do appreiciate your help. Thank you.

Tixy

Whilst I don't know about halifax in particular - with most high street banks it is often possible to apply for a loan and if immediatley accepted then have the money in the bank in a couple of working days (or next day for a small chaps charge sometimes).

But also its possible you could apply and have your application referred to the underwriters - who could take a week to make a human decision on accepting or declining. Or occasionally could come back and ask for additional information/proof of income or something.
So you could be eventually accepted but it take a couple of weeks or so.

EDIT - One thing you could consider - would be getting a soft search loan quote from nationwide (even tonight). The thing about tnationwide in particular is they will provide an estimated loan quote from doing a soft search of your credit files. This means it is based on your actual files and data, but doesn't count as a full search that other potential lenders could see.
Whilst you are not guaranteed to get the rate offered - it might give you an idea if you are likely to be accepted for that size loan.
Although it is often the case that your own bank will be willing to lend even when others won't so its a guide only.

I believe if the quote is above a certain APR (24%?) then in reality that means you are likely to be declined by nationwide- someone else might be able to provide more info.

AdamJK_2

You can apply over the telephone as you've got an existing relationship with them - just give them a call and they'll have a decision for you the same day. Depending on the time they might even be able to credit you current account on Sat if accepted.

Personally I'd give them a call and see what they offer - worst they're going to say is no, in which case you can ask them to refer to underwriters as mentioned above.