Discharged, credit score and mortgage

kel913

Hello

Me and my husband will have been discharged from bankruptcy 4 years in January.

I have spent the last few months cleaning up our credit files in the hope of increasing our credit score. The lady we are renting off of is happy to sell us the house and we really would like to buy it.

I have checked both our credit scores this eve and we both have 'excellent' credit scores. We know that getting a mortgage is going to be very difficult but I just wondered how much the credit scores influence the decision when taking into account our history?

I was actually really shocked as I thought we would both have 'poor' credit scores, is it fairly normal to build up a score that quickly? I have had a credit card for 3 years and have run it really well and my husband has just been accepted for a credit card (both the credit cards have been taken out to help build our credit scores)

My mum will be helping us with the deposit but it will be maximum of 10% though, so we have been looking into the help to buy mortgage guarantee scheme, does anybody know if they consider ex bankrupts? Also our landlady said she will take into consideration the fact we have been paying rent so it is likely she will sell us the house for less than what it is worth so would that work in our favour as well?

Thanks in advance

sacha1dog

Where did you check your credit scores?

The bankruptcy will stay on your credit files for 6 years, together with the debts that you claimed at BR.

Something isn't right there.

kel913

The scores are from experian. The bankruptcy is showing on equifax but under the public record information in the experian one it just says 'no data received' ?! So maybe that is why the scores are high? I haven't got our scores from equifax yet, I will do though to compare them.

On equifax all the debts are marked as settled with the correct dates. On experian the don't appear in the 'account information' section. I'm confused?!

kel913

On the experian one it says; number of credit accounts, including those settled - 3, that's definitely not right!

mattannar

I was under the impression that "help to buy" was only for new builds, or is that a different scheme?

sacha1dog

Something isn't right there.

I've just come over the 6 year mark and whilst the bankruptcy has fallen off in the court records, the creditors are still often wrong and I'm going thorough the clean up excercise.

Just make sure your files are up to date. Good luck.

kel913

I will get in touch with them, thanks

I have already been In touch with all the creditors and they have all updated the details on both our files as advised on the cleanup post on here, so they are all showing as settled/satisfied with the correct default and settled dates, good luck with yours!

Mattannar - it is the one they brought in last month (it was supposed to be January but they brought it forward) and it is for any house, there are two different help to buy scheme now

kel913

So I realised why all the bankruptcy and creditors werent on there - it had only asked for one previous address when I signed up and we went bankrupt in the house before. I have updated the address on both our files and it updated over night. My score is 5 points less but still 'excellent' and my husbands has dropped by 20 points and is now a high 'good'. Does this still sound like it could be wrong?

We have an app with our bank today to hopefully upgrade our account from a cash card account so hopefully they might have an idea if our scores are correct?

Contracts_Engineer

sacha1dog wrote: »

Something isn't right there.

I've just come over the 6 year mark and whilst the bankruptcy has fallen off in the court records, the creditors are still often wrong and I'm going thorough the clean up excercise.

Just make sure your files are up to date. Good luck.

The government has a scheme that allows you to buy existing properties. It is running now but you wont get the money till january

downhillfast

kel913 wrote: »

So I realised why all the bankruptcy and creditors werent on there - it had only asked for one previous address when I signed up and we went bankrupt in the house before. I have updated the address on both our files and it updated over night. My score is 5 points less but still 'excellent' and my husbands has dropped by 20 points and is now a high 'good'. Does this still sound like it could be wrong?

We have an app with our bank today to hopefully upgrade our account from a cash card account so hopefully they might have an idea if our scores are correct?

The 'scores' they give you mean nothing. The only way to know how good a credit risk you are is by assessing the information held on file about you. As you previously said, Experian didn't have it recorded that you were BR... now they have updated it do all of your BR creditors show? If they do (with all of the account details) I'd be amazed if you were considered 'excellent' as a credit risk tbh.

Eve1975

My credit score went from fair to good when my bankruptcy dropped off my file 6 years after bankruptcy.

Some lenders will only deal with a former bankrupt after a certain amount of time after bankruptcy, some never.

I have just bought a house with my partner 6 years on, and they wanted to know a lot about my financial affairs (which is understandable). Even with a big deposit there was a point I did not think we would get the mortgage.

I think lenders are more interested in how you look after you finances than your credt score from my experience when applying for a mortgage.

Good luck.