Possibility of a joint 95% mortgage with one 'poor' credit rating & one excellent?

ClareTeaches

Hello all!

I've been obsessing over this and reading loads of threads here for hours, so I figure I should ask and see if anyone can give some info based on my circumstances, rather than me second guessing all night and losing sleep ...

Partner and I have saved in a Nationwide Save to Buy account for about a year and a half and have £6800 saved. We're looking at properties up to £130,000, so our LTV will be about 93-95%, depending on what we go for.

Partner has an excellent credit score with his only debt being a car loan he took out in November.

I was horrified to find my credit score with Experian was 'poor' and have worked to pay off a student overdraft (from teacher training), with credit score currently sitting at what appears to be the top end of poor (around 760, I think at last check). I thought I'd have more time to clear a bit more on my credit card before a mortgage application, but we've found somewhere we like and want to put an offer before it goes, and paying off my overdraft hasn't increased my score by as much as I'd hoped. (Also was extra confused when my Equifax report said 'good', before I'd done anything to improve it, but that's a whole other debate!)

Now, I've seen lots of threads on here where people who know much better than me say those credit scores are a load of rubbish and ask for the actual details to help them work out how my credit situation is likely to be viewed by lenders, so ...

- First time buyers, with deposit of just over 5% of what we'd like to offer.
- I have no late payments, defaults, CCJs or anything like that.
- I have £1200 on a credit card with Nationwide (we want to get a mortgage with them, because of Save to Buy account). Limit is £1500.
- I have £630 on another card which is 0% until November. Limit is £750.
- Unused overdraft with another bank (the one I've paid it off), with a limit of £1,500.
- Overdraft on current account with Nationwide is used each month, but is paid off every pay day. Limit of £550.
- Bought something on finance just over a year ago, no missed/late payments, currently owe £850. Monthly payments are £34.

Experian says my issues are that I have a high useage of credit (and shows I'm using 48% of available credit) and I don't have any settled accounts. Annoyingly, I had a career development loan, which I cleared about a year ago, with no miesed payments, but it doesn't show on my credit report and research on here seems to suggest that they don't ever! I did go and close the unused current account (didn't have an overdraft or anything) that had been opened by Co-op alongside the CDL, in the hope that might register as a settled account ... So will wait and see if it does (only did that last week)...

My questions:
- Would I be better off concentrating on paying off my credit cards, or staying out of my overdraft?
- Do we stand a chance of getting an mortgage in our current position, or should we wait until my stuff is paid off more? (Concerned about rising prices, though!)
- Are there particular lenders we're likely to be successful with?

I know I've made mistakes, but I really didn't realise how big an impact it would have on my credit score (considering I've never been late with a payment or anything like that) until I checked my report and I'm really disappointed that I've paid off the £1000 overdraft, but my score has only gone up a bit. It feels like I'm never going to get it into 'fair', never mind 'good' and certainly not before prices go above our budget!

Please help!

With much thanks,

Clare

kingstreet

CRA credit scores are pointless. The information is different on each version of your credit file, so you would need to try to match your best file with a lender which only uses that CRA.

Lenders don't normally take information from all three CRAs.

As you are applying to one lender for a niche product, the only option is to ask Nationwide for a decision in principle and see what happens, before you commit to a property.

The way the system works, no-one can give you anything other than a speculative response, despite the amount of detail in your post. At the end of the speculation will be the need to try for a DIP, so I'm going to cut to that now.

Typhoon2000

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your credit file. You must stop going into your overdraft every month though.
Ensure that you both are on the electoral roll.

ClareTeaches

Thank you, both!

Think I just have to bite the bullet and apply for a DIP ... Which I thought would be the case, I'm just a massive worrier! And I'll focus on not going into OD before paying off more on the credit cards.

As long as we don't do loads, a search shouldn't negatively impact our credit record, right?

Also, I don't know if anyone else has heard this, but when we opened the Save to Buy, the guy at Nationwide said that when they do their credit checks/mortgage application, they take into account your standing with them as well as the credit report. Does anyone else know anything about that?

amnblog

If you are a worrier you have a fun time ahead with the purchase process.

The DIP is just stage one, plenty more hurdles and hassles.

Good luck.

ClareTeaches

Haha, Amnblog, this has crossed my mind! Oh well, just have to deal with it and get on with it! Thanks for the wish of luck ��