We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

In preperation for mortgage application

Ok this will be a long one, our house is on the market and we are trying to max the chances of a new mortgage going through as easy as possible. Im thinking of the things the bank will be looking for so this is how it is, please advise if we can do anything to improve things or are we doing it the best way.

I have a santander account my wages and my expenses (Approx £200 fuel expenses back from money ive paid out previous month) all go into this account. No dd's but I pay for all fuel, food shopping out of this account, plus take out between £100-150 a month cash to last all month for the odd take away, window cleaner, dinner monies, odd meal out etc, once its gone unless its an emergancy nothing else is withdrawn. Whatever isnt accounted for for living is transfered to savings, approx £600 a month. I have £100 overdraft which i try and keep out of but may go in a bit just before payday but any longer and I transfer a bit from savings although rare. So all transactions are mainly tesco, lol.

Then we have a nationwide account hubbys wages, child benefit, tax credits etc all go into. All the dds come from this account, no general spending. After all dd's are piad the rest gets transfered to savings, approx £500 a month. We have a regular saver with nationwide and a esaving account. Approx 2k in savings. He has no overdraft.

I have one credit card with a 2k limit, zero balance. I put the occasional internet purchase on it but pay off in full every month. Car on finances, £280 a month, only taken out 5 months ago, in hindsight was a bad move. No other debt. 1 missed payment on a settled card from 2012, everything else ok.

Husband has 5 credit cards, with a total available of approx 11k, but balance on all zero. He again will buy the occasional thing off the internet if needed and pay it off in full. Wondering whether to close some of these accounts down, and just keep 2/3 open. What would you recommend. He also has his car on finance owing 3k, to be paid off in just over a year. He also has a very account with £750 on which is interest free for 12 month so havent paid off yet, but can do. He had 4 missed payments, but have managed to get 2 removed but still leaves vodafone from last year which we are still fighting but not getting very far. A missed payment from July and Oct.

So I know a bank will go over bank statements with a fine tooth comb, can we do anything else to make them look better.
Shall we close down some of his visas?
Someone mentioned that late payments on phone bills are not looked at as bad as say a loan/mortgage, is there no difference? Im just thinking worse case vodafone wont remove them. Will these two make a massive difference.

Total income £55k, wanting to borrow £190k with ideally a 5% deposit but could stretch to 10% if have to.

Any advise welcome.

Comments

  • Anyone....please
  • ACG
    ACG Posts: 24,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've helped Parliament
    Your questions in the last paragraph will vary from lender to lender.
    Some will not mind phone late payments over a certain age, others will.

    As for the visa cards, some lenders prefer to see you using a lower percentage of your overall available credit, others prefer to see not too much available.

    There is no set answer, either way its not going to make a massive difference one way or the other. Pay your bills on time, dont go overdrawn, be on the voters roll and you should be fine.
    I am a Mortgage Adviser
    You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    What's your current outstanding mortgage ?
  • 109k, we've put it on for 119, no interest get! Lived here 8 years never missed a payment.

    Thanks
  • Vodafone
    Vodafone Posts: 4,297 Organisation Representative
    Hi christologymum,

    Thanks for making me aware of your concerns.

    To enable me to get things looked into, could you email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

    All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me, quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

    Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

    Kind regards,

    Lee

    Social Media Comms

    Vodafone UK
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Vodafone. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 354.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 247.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 603.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.3K Life & Family
  • 261.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.