Head Wall..Wall Head. Mortgage

spartacusviking

Hi all, I thought I would mention my dilemna. I am debt free (£150 on 1 credit card but that will paid off at the end of the month) All my previous accounts are shown as "Satisfactory" and "Settled" The problem is last year I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks for two seperate reasons. Everything was sorted and have been discharged with a clean bill of health. I informed SANTANDER that I will have to pay at a reduced rate and then I would pay the outstanding balance in full as my house sale was going through. They have since sent me a letter confirming this which I attach at the bottom of this posting. The problem is that I now have a red 4 on my Experian report and this is actually stopping me from getting a New Mortgage. I have basically now given up hope...unless any of you know how I can get around this? I am not holding out much hope to be honest.:( BTW I have a £25K deposit.

Following our telephone conversation this afternoon, I am emailing you as promised.



Re: Santander Personal Loan Account**************



I can confirm that you contacted us yourself, before your account went into arrears to advise us that you were very unwell and unable to work as a self employed driving instructor. As a result, you experienced a sharp fall in your income and were unable to maintain your regular payments for a period of time.



We made an arrangement with you, and you maintained this throughout. When you did return to work, you increased your payments to us as you were able. You then notified us that as your were waiting for your house sale to go through, and once it did, you would settle the arrears on your account, before paying the debt off in full. You did as you promised.



I am very sorry that I have been unable to amend your credit rating at all, as we are obliged to record a true and factual account of how your account was conducted. We have reflected that fact that we did have an arrangement with you.



I would like to wish you luck in gaining a new mortgage offer and all the best for the future



Kind Regards


Customer Resolution Manager

Centralised Collections Unit (CCU)

Santander UK plc, Building 3, Floor 1, Carlton Park, Narborough, Leicester, LE19 0AL

Tel: 0845 6093969

Dave_Ham

Hi there,

The key here is what your Experian, Equifax and Call Credit show?

Is it just a 4 and not an official default? This will/would have been a lot, lot worse.

What purchase price are you looking at with the £25k deposit and where have you been rejected from so far?

Not necessarily done and dusted yet..

Experian_company_representative

A status 4 is likely to be viewed by banks and building societies as very similar to a default. You may hear the term 'delinquent' used - an indication of serious appears. If the status code is accurate then your only real option re your credit report is adding a notice of correction to explain your previous ill health. Future lenders would see this and may take it into account. The quicker you can bring this particular account back to status 0 the better. It would also be much better to keep the account open for a while (assuming you might eventually close it) as this would be the quickest way to improve your credit rating.

James Jones

spartacusviking

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply, we are looking to get a mortgage for £150,000. I have been assured the loan was not a default by Santander. We were rejected from ams mortgage brokers and the mortgage consultant from Taylors estate agents won't return my calls:think:

James Jones

The account was paid in full and the loan was settled just after the late fourth payment.
What is annoying is that I made this arrangement with Santander but I am being penalised for it.

Dave_Ham

At which point get at the very least your Experian and Equifax reports to an experienced broker.

If you are buying through taylors you may need to move quickly as they are likely to have shared this issue with your seller.

Best of luck

john1002

I would think that now would be a good time to get hold fo your cedit fiels from all three agencies, if you have not had any before use the free trials but make sure you cancel so as not to get charged. See how many searches you have and see what the other agencies hold for the santander account. From there then look to a specialist broker who can understand your circumstances and ensure you get the best possible chance of getting your mortgage.

john

JimmyTheWig

spartacusviking wrote: »

What is annoying is that I made this arrangement with Santander but I am being penalised for it.

I would imagine that if you hadn't made the arrangement with Santander then it would now be recorded as a default, which would be worse (though maybe not much worse).

Presumably you had very little choice when you contacted Santander - it wasn't that you chose to reduce your payments just because you felt like it? I.e. had you have known the effect it would have had on your credit file, you would have still done it?

Thrugelmir

spartacusviking wrote: »

What is annoying is that I made this arrangement with Santander but I am being penalised for it.

The information is factually correct. The credit record does not belong to you but is to inform other lenders as to how you managed your account.

The fact you required reduced payments. Informs a potential lender that you had no savings to fall back on. As a self employed individual you don't have the benefit of a Company sick pay scheme.

So a lenders decision is made on how they profile you as an individual and your attitude to money.

spartacusviking

Many thanks to all for your advice. As I am in rented accomodation at this moment I will sit tight for now and re-evaluate the situation...although I will still try to find a mortgage broker who can help. I realise things are tight and the criteria for lending reflects this. Maybe not a bad thing considering they were throwing loans at you a few years back. All I will finish off saying is I personally feel the housing market is artificially being held high at this moment in time. If there are more restraints on getting a mortgage (I'm not the only one) then there must be less money in the system. Six months down the line the goal posts may have moved once again.

Best regards to you all.

Glenn:beer:

Thrugelmir

spartacusviking wrote: »

If there are more restraints on getting a mortgage (I'm not the only one) then there must be less money in the system. Six months down the line the goal posts may have moved once again.

There is going to far less money available in the future. So there will be a correction in house prices. Either a sharp fall or long period of stagnation.

So don't give up. Continue to save. While letting time heal your credit record.

Build an emergency pot of cash for the difficult times.

.

spartacusviking

Thrugelmir wrote: »

There is going to far less money available in the future. So there will be a correction in house prices. Either a sharp fall or long period of stagnation.

So don't give up. Continue to save. While letting time heal your credit record.

Build an emergency pot of cash for the difficult times.

.

That is always good advice. If I manage to secure a mortgage (I can't find a flying pig smilie:() I will keep you updated. I tell you what though.....It does feel good when you are debt free:T