Credit Report/Mortgage post BR

chipshill

Hi everyone, I haven't posted on here for a while, I mainly just read to learn my answers but I'm struggling with the final few.

I declared bankruptcy on August 20th 2007 when I was 22, and discharged (2008). Since then, I've not had any credit cards or loans etc, not even a phone contract (not in my name anyway). I have an ok job and have saved around 10k for a house deposit with my partner. We found a house we wanted, an with the deposit, our LTV was around 62% which is pretty good. I have a guarantor with several properties if needed, plus 20k+ equity in the house we are in now (the house belongs to my dad, but profit from sale will be mine to renovate new house). So the BR was a big black cloud handing over otherwise decent circumstances. The application was denied, not even with chance of appeal.

I went straight home, signed up to creditexpert to check out my report.

Your current score is: 774



Factors affecting your score:

3 Positive factors

• The usage of your available credit indicates a lower risk
• The balance of your unsecured lending indicates a lower risk
• The age of your accounts indicates lenders are likely to view you as lower risk

» See more


3 Negative factors

• You have an account regarded as defaulted or delinquent (4 of them from BR)
• The value of your highest credit limit indicates a higher risk.(£200 on a credit card I got 2 weeks ago with the plan of using it to raise my score. The card I had to pay £50 to get btw)
• You have recently opened 1 or more new credit accounts.(above)

My 'score' is 774 and marked as 'fair' but going through the list (only 8), 5 of them were from before my BR and should now be marked as settled, or at least partially settled so I am in the process of contacting all the relevant departments to have them amended but some of them are asking me to prove they were included in the BR. How do I get hold of a list of what was included in it?

Secondly, around the time I declared BR, my partner took out a few loans etc to help up out totalling around £8k. Since then she's been paying them as much as possible and there is around £3 left, she's never missed a payment but her score was a shocking low 500's. After a bit of digging around her report, it seems one collection agency have checked her report 17 times in the last 2 months! I guess it's just to see if she can afford to pay any more off, but each time they do this, it knocks her credit score down. I guess it's their right to, but 17 times seriously?! Is there anything we can do to stop this getting worse? We'll never get a mortgage at this rate

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

sniggings

All debts are included in BR (well a few aren't but only a very few) so you don't need to provide a list, if anything only a copy of your BR to show the date, your OR may have sent you one, or I believe you can buy one from them if they charge, give your OR a ring.

There is a sticky at the top of this board showing you how to clear your credit file.

Remember too that when you link a debt such as a mortgage the two of you will both be affected by each others credit report.

17 times is a lot, I always thought they needed to ask permission to check a credit report? because as you say it goes down on the report and affects the score.

The score btw is only there to give you an idea where you are at, to get credit they take a lot of different things into account so the score can mean nothing if you don't tick the right boxes, just not being on the voting register can be enough to not get any credit, even with a good score.

My next move would be to totally clear the report and then look for a good mortgage broker.

Keeping your name off the mortgage might be the way to go too.

PippaGirl_2

Some lenders won't accept people with a BR on their file though, and it will show on your file for 6 years. So it ought to leave your file August 2013 which isn't too long away for you now.

chipshill

I didn't know the electoral role was so important but I noticed it was one of the negative things as soon as I signed in so that has now changed and is a positive mark.

Keeping my name off the mortgage isn't possible as I'm the main income for us unfortunately.

I know next August isn't too bad at all, it's just a real shame to let this house go, it was 'the one'. You know when you just get that feeling? Someone put in a bid higher than the asking price, still less than what it was worth so we thought, it wasn't meant to be... Then that fell through... lol

They don't need permission to check your report for as long as they are still owed monies so we can't do anything. It's just a kick in the teeth that this is their tactic. Keep credit checking them to batter their credit until it gets so bad they HAVE to find a way to pay it off in one...

Experian_company_representative

Only credit application search footprints can affect credit scoring. Debt collectors do not carry out credit application searches.

James Jones

chipshill

Sorry to drag up an old thread, a very old thread in fact. I am the OP, and since my original post things have only improved. I am now looking to get a mortgage again on another house I have found. My girlfriend still has defaults on her file but mine is clean, with the only negative point being the value of my highest credit limit (which I had back then too). My score is now 981, and have doubled my salary. I'm looking to get a mortgage alone and noticed on my credit file, the bankruptcy doesn't even show up anymore in the public records section. (I heard it was wiped off after 6 years but didn't think it was true!) Would I still have to declare it at application?

lindsaygalaxy

If it asks 'have you ever been...' then yes you do. Go to a broker, lots of people have managed it. I hope to be one of them soon!

Black_Eyeliner

I've mentioned it a few times already on here, but the Halifax only ask you to declare bankruptcies that happened within the last six years. I was made bankrupt in 2007, and recently got a mortgage with the Halifax using the Help to Buy (Mortgage Guarantee) scheme.