Re-mortgage application refused. Please help!

lovelylouca

Hi I applied for a re-mortgage recently and was refused on the basis of my credit history. This came as a big shock, since I've never missed a payment on any credit in the last 6 years (I've only had one late payment on a since settled credit card in the last month).

As advised by my mortgage broker I requested a copy of my credit report and saw that 3 of my mortgage payments in the past 12 months were showing up as late payments. I have had no correspondence from either my bank or mortgage provider to alert me to this. The bank were unaware of any refused payments and when I spoke to the Halifax (my mortgage provider) they said that because I paid by Standing Order, sometimes this took a day or two longer to appear as a credit in their system and so when the report was run on the last day of the month, if it was a short month then it would show up as not received and a late payment logged.

Halifax say that they cannot override these on my credit report and I've sent my mortgage payments statements to my broker in the hope that they can go back to the lender and plead my case. Has anyone else fallen foul of this? I'm being refused a re-mortgage on the basis of something that until now, I was completely unaware was an issue. I'm remortgaging after a split with the father of my kids and trying to make life more affordable. Any advice gratefully received.

opinions4u

First piece of advice is to pay by direct debit. Weekends will shove standing orders in to the wrong month. The end of this month also falls on a weekend.

Secondly, make your broker work for you.

lovelylouca

Thanks opinions4u. I have changed to DD - I only chose SO because my last employer paid us on the last Thursday of every month (not especially helpful) and Halifax could only set up a DD on 1-28 of a month - meaning that in some months I'd be paying two mortgage payments which would have caused me a cashflow issue.

My broker has gone very quiet, but I only sent the statements to them today, so I'm hoping that they'll realise I'm no time waster and give me some help.

lovelylouca

Just wanted reassurance that this wasn't an insurmountable problem/blight on my credit report. Should I contact Experian directly and ask for it to be qualified/corrected?

opinions4u

lovelylouca wrote: »

Just wanted reassurance that this wasn't an insurmountable problem/blight on my credit report.

Hopefully the brokers will be along shortly to guide you on that.

Should I contact Experian directly and ask for it to be qualified/corrected?

It is correct, so they won't change it. You can attach a note to the file explaining it, but I'm not convinced this will ever make a difference. Working through the fallout with a good broker is probably the best solution.

It might help if you post purchase price and amount you're looking to borrow, together with income.

StuC75

But the Credit History appears to be factually correct.

Standing Order payments are nothing to do with the mortgage company, they are only receiving payments in line with the instruction you gave to the bank.

What is the "I've only had one late payment on a since settled credit card in the last month"..

squeeks

If you are paid on the last day of the month, get the DD date set up for the beginning of the month. I allow a few days, to make sure everything is clear and I have time to do something about it, if it is not.

Experian_company_representative

If it's correct the lender is unlikely to agree to change it, but you can add a note to your credit report explain what happened, which may be helpful. Other lenders will certainly see it. Details in this Q&A.

James

magpiecottage

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

If it's correct the lender is unlikely to agree to change it, but you can add a note to your credit report explain what happened, which may be helpful. Other lenders will certainly see it. Details in this Q&A.

James

It is also worth bearing in mind that the Data Protection Act gives you the right to insist that the decision is made by a person rather than a computer.

lovelylouca

magpiecottage wrote: »

It is also worth bearing in mind that the Data Protection Act gives you the right to insist that the decision is made by a person rather than a computer.

Interesting - so can I go back to Halifax and ask for a human decision to override the automatically generated one and then have it amended on my credit report?

Still no response from London and Country - 4 days 2 calls and 2 emails with statements later....

Thanks all for your posts. :beer:

amnblog

lovelylouca wrote: »

Interesting - so can I go back to Halifax and ask for a human decision to override the automatically generated one and then have it amended on my credit report?

Still no response from London and Country - 4 days 2 calls and 2 emails with statements later....

Thanks all for your posts. :beer:

They are 'free' though