Mortgage planning advice please

thingsmustchange

Hi
I wonder if I could ask for some advice please, maybe you have professional experience or maybe you have been through something similar.
Mine and my husband's current situation is that we live in a small two bed flat, we owe a far bit of money on cards and loans but don't earn too bad money. The main reason for being in debt was my ex, 30k odd behind my back on cards/loan/joint unauthorised overdraft taken out in my name buying stuff online etc (you probably get the idea), the spiral of debt after this paying it off and then when we did get our mortgage we somehow picked a really dodgy broker who (now in hindsight) told us a pack of lies about the mortgage he arrange for us and to top it off fraudlently set up a ton of dd's for fake life insurance. Anyhow we are slowly crawling our way our of debt and our priority at the moment is overpaying every penny possible! I'm just about to turn 32, my husband is 30 and we really want to move to a house and start a family.
Our credit ratings aren't great, not because of missed payments (I think OH has one for about £30 from about 5 1/2 year ago, I have no missed payments) but because of a) over-indebtedness and b)available credit, hopefully I've picked up the correct terms having been reading the posts. I've cancelled a load of cards which had nil balances to help with b) and obviously as we pay stuff off this will help with a). We have some equity in the flat and bank with Nationwide so I've set up a Save to Buy homemover account, only for £50 per month but I thought it may give us more options.

So my question (after all that waffle above) is, if this is our situation what is the likelyhood of us being able to move in a years time:
My wage 40k salaried + £500 bonus (currently 38.5k but guarateed to go up with exams - been there 9 years next year)
OH wage prob 30k salaried by next year (currently 28k due to go up as taking over another role)

Our loan repayments will be £650 still next year with 2 years to run.
I'm aiming to pay another card off but if not the balance will be about £4k.

Our current place should fetch between 120k to 125k, having seen other sold prices. Worst case scenario say 118k.

Our current mortgage is 100k - base rate + 2%.

A 3 bed terrace here goes for around 165 - 185k or a 3 bed semi around 200 - 215k.

Based on my workings of stamp duty, estate agent fees, legal fees, removals, surveys, mortgage feets etc coming to about 6k vs equity & savings (inc an isa) we'd have about 16.5k for a deposit which is obviously somewhere between 5-10% depending on the house.

FYI when I put our info into the nationwide affortability calc, playing around with different scenarios I get 240k - 290k we could borrow (with the info above its 272k)

At one point we thought about selling up, using what was left over after fees to pay off some debt and saving up the deposit again but our interest only mortgage (yes, I know ) is only £210 per month which helps the overpayments, to rent even a small flat will cost about £600 - £650 and about £850 for a house so it would take much longer so that idea has been dismissed.

I assume our credit score gets better as we pay stuff off but I've no idea how that is viewed by a mortgage provider, do they think we've had a load of debt and that's it or is it more important that there are no missed payments and we are not in so much debt anymore?

I've just secured a 24 month 0% card with fluid for the final bit of card debt so we will make sure not to apply for anything else in the next year as we don't want a load of searches to count against us too.

I would just be really grateful for some advice and whether we be likely to get a mortgage considering it's all good (but not good if you know what a mean!) debt and if there is anything else we can do to improve our credit profile (both on electrol roll too).

Also is it likely that the mortgage funding next year will ease the 90-95% LTV market?
And does anyone know if we have any chance with nationwide save to buy at 90-95%? (they are our main bank so see all our payments and overpayments, have an overdraft but only dip into it for one or two days per month but that will have changed by this August when we will have built up some more credit in it to stop it going that low at the very end of the month)

If you've read this far then I am so very grateful, and appreciate any input.

Thank you

amnblog

The length of your post shows the complexity of your situation.

You talk of fraudulent activity on your account and a 'spiral of debt'.

This suggests your credit file may be the major barrier here.

Saving with Nationwide is not going to secure you a mortgage.

Go to a mortgage broker with a copy of your credit file and have them help you establish what can be done.

originalmiscellany

Also, you have a decent combined salary. Consider how much you spend/save and hammer your debts, starting with the highest interest rate. Clearing that will put your in a MUCH better place to consider a mortgage, as if I was a bank, looking at your salaries of 70k and your debt, it would show me that you have money issues and it would appear that there may be safer bets to put my money with...

thingsmustchange

Hi

Thank you for your replies, it's very kind of you.

amnblog -
debt is on the way to being paid off, fraud years years ago (12-13...), no missed payments, no arrangements, no ccj's, no dmp etc (bar oh £30 missed payment 5 1/2 years ago)
As we don't plan on moving things along until next year I didn't want to visit a broker just yet but bar paying things off, closing accounts down and carefully using a credit card each month (cash back card paid in full each month) I wasn't sure if there was anything else we should be doing?
Out of interest why not nationwide? Is it not favourable that we bank with them and they can see we manage our money and make significant payments to pay loans off?

originalmiscellany-
trust me we are hammering the debts, every bit of expenditure scrutinised, aldi for food, walking/biking if possible, sim only 7.50 mobile tariffs, topcashback, ebay - you name it we've done it! Plus learning to save...best feeling ever having little amounts set aside for mot, car repairs, vets bills, management company etc, for years we were so skint any one of these things used to break us but not anymore
I see exactly what you mean about us as a risk but in my defence we are talking about next year when we will owe a lot less than now, my problem is that I'm not getting any younger so we need to start thinking about starting a family or it might not happen, and that requires a home bigger than a shoebox
I must say I am surprised the nationwide affordability calc is coming out so high if you cant borrow it... is it very unreliable? are there better ones to use to guage if the amount we need to borrow matches how much we could borrow? any pointers would be great!
Thanks