Future first time buyer, a little bit worried

tgrvl

So here's the story, my girlfriend is currently in her last year of university, when she's finished (next June) we're going to start looking at our first place.

I currently earn 15k/year but hoping to move jobs to around 19-20k/year in the next couple of months.
She has an offer of full time employment (in Halfords) when she returns home, which is brilliant, obviously not the best pay but it'll be a good wage to start from. The employment rate for her degree is something like 80% in the first year, the starting wage in her line of work is 20-25k.

So we're looking at around 30-40k/year between us.

Now here's the issue.. when I was 18 I maxed out my overdraft and got a bank loan, both with Lloyds TSB. I defaulted on them both after I lost my job and have been struggling to keep up until about 2 years ago, since then I've been paying an agreed upon monthly amount and they've been steadily decreasing (they started around 8k together and now 2.5k).


Would the possibility of us getting a mortgage in the next year or so be increased if I paid off these debts right now? I have the opportunity of borrowing from my grandmother and I think I could get a reduced payment for paying the debts off all at once.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Getting a mortgage is unsettled defaults will be tricky. What level are you hoping to buy and whats going to be your deposit?

Would be better to settle the defaults as early as possible.