Signing for house in 2 weeks - Will CC spends affect me?

Cobzeh

Hi,

We sign for the house in two weeks and need to start buying the big furniture. I was just wondering if the Mortgage company had any more searches to do? If so, would spending on my credit card for the big things (e.g Sofa) have a negative affect on me at this point?

Thanks

ognum

Cobzeh wrote: »

Hi,

We sign for the house in two weeks and need to start buying the big furniture. I was just wondering if the Mortgage company had any more searches to do? If so, would spending on my credit card for the big things (e.g Sofa) have a negative affect on me at this point?

Thanks

Please be very careful about buying any furniture for a house that you have not exchanged contracts on. Signing a contract does not mean the house is your.

Many many things can go wrong with house purchases and you could be left paying for furniture that does not have a home. It may not fit the next house you try to buy and you will have to store it.

Wait until you have exchanged contracts, at that point the house will be yours, then think about furniture.

Like some others of us you can sit on deck chairs and sleep on a mattress on the floor for a couple of weeks. far better that way than having furniture you don't want any more.

It is also often good to get the feel of a place before you but expensive items, beg and borrow furniture for a few weeks until you are able to think carefully about what you need.

Gosh I sound old!

PasturesNew

ognum wrote: »

Like some others of us you can sit on deck chairs and sleep on a mattress on the floor for a couple of weeks. far better that way than having furniture you don't want any more.

It is also often good to get the feel of a place before you but expensive items, beg and borrow furniture for a few weeks until you are able to think carefully about what you need.

Gosh I sound old!

Yeah, this. You don't need furniture, you want it .... and pricey stuff it seems.

Make do, live in the space, then see what you think would be best there ....

TBagpuss

Depending on how much leeway you had in the affordability of your mortgage, this could be an issue. The mortgage co. May do a final credit check - my original buyer had his mortgage offer withdrawn just before we were due to exchange - I was told the reason was that he had gone on a spending spree buying furniture on CCs and that as a result the lender decided the mortgage was no longer affordable!!

I believe it was a 95% mortgage - I assume that with a bigger deposit the lender would be less twitchy.

I also agree with the advice to wait and see the house with your stuffin, and live there a few days, before buying, to get more of a feel for what will 'go'.

mrginge

Just to add, the lender may credit check at any point up to COMPLETION.
Do not think you are safe after you've exchanged, as a pulled offer between exchange and completion is far worse than before exchange.

ethank

I was checked again by Nationwide two days before completion. I know you are in a rush to have your perfect home on day 1, but on moving day you are going to be to exhausted to even unpack, so probably best to wait until you have completed and cope for a couple of weeks without it.

[Deleted User]

I know you want your brilliant new house to look perfect the day you move in (or as soon as possible) but allow yourself some time to live in the house, get used to it, get used to budgeting for all the bills etc (it might take time to get council tax properly sorted out). It will take time for things like utility payments, and council tax payments to settle.

You could obtain cheap second hand furniture to last you a few months or a year from seond hand charity shops or ebay. You could even get furniture through freecycle (for free). It might not be exactly what you see yourself ending up with, but could save you from making expensive mistakes.

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen people with enormous sofas etc in relatively small lounges because they viewed them in huge furniture stores and didn't measure them, didn't even think that their lounge is much much smaller and might be overwhelmed by what seems an average sized sofa in the show room but is actually a very large sofa (for a small room you need a sofa that has a depth of 1m or so, measure the ones you have been looking at, modern sofas often are much larger).

Just get yourself the basics in a liveable with design.., use ebay whenever possible (but check a sellers feedback carefully). Price check anything you want to buy through google as below.

Price check avidly. I can usually save 1/3 on appliances. Decide what sort of appliance you want, what colour, what you need it to be able to do (like high spin speed, 5, 6,7 or 8 kg loads) and then google 'cheapest washing machine <wash load weight> as a starting point. There's no point in wasting money.

I nearly bought a tall fridge freezer, got home measured the only space for a fridge freezer and discovered the cupboards above wouldn't let me use any kind of fridge freezer unless I purchased only slightly taller than under counter ones.

If you can avoid using a credit card at all.., why pay the interest. Set yourself the challenge of making your house look good on secondhand goods where possible.., see how much you can save against what you planned to pay. Then the credit card is there if an emergency arises (which it often does when you least need it).

The only thing i probably wouldn't get second hand are bed frames and mattresses as these might import interesting creatures called bed bugs which are a nightmare to get rid of lol.

sulphate

In a word, yes. Don't do it. As others have already said the mortgage lender can pull the offer right up to completion.

Yorkie1

deannatrois wrote: »

You could obtain cheap second hand furniture to last you a few months or a year from seond hand charity shops or ebay. You could even get furniture through freecycle (for free). It might not be exactly what you see yourself ending up with, but could save you from making expensive mistakes.

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen people with enormous sofas etc in relatively small lounges because they viewed them in huge furniture stores and didn't measure them, didn't even think that their lounge is much much smaller and might be overwhelmed by what seems an average sized sofa in the show room but is actually a very large sofa (for a small room you need a sofa that has a depth of 1m or so, measure the ones you have been looking at, modern sofas often are much larger).

I agree with all of DT's post but wanted to highlight these paragraphs.

I had second hand armchairs to start with, and it is a very good idea to live in a property before making decisions about expenditure on big items of furniture. I'm so pleased I measured properly what the maximum sizes of sofa I could fit into my living room given where the door and radiator were. If I'd guessed rather than measuring it all out on pieces of paper on the floor, I'd have been well stuck :eek:

A friend once said to me, all you need is something to sit on when you watch TV, and something to sleep on. I agree about new mattresses, but freecycle can be your friend until you're sure about what you want and where.

FTB129

I wanted to do the same thing, but was advised not to in case the bank do another credit search - and they actually did, 2 days before completion so glad i didn't and waited.

borkid

Buy once your in the house, for most furniture I measure and mark out on the floor where the piece is going to go. As you walk around for a couple of days you will notice if it'll get in the way you'll also have a better idea of the impact it will have on the space. For large pieces of furniture you need to consider carefully how it is going to get in the house/ up the stairs.

Buying and moving always seems to cost more than you expect I'd hold off on buying anything new until you've moved and have a better idea of what you need to buy/ do.