Nationwide Save To Buy / Flexclusives / Credit check question

soulvacation

Hi,

My boyfriend and I have had a Save To Buy Savings Account with Nationwide since January. We want to start looking at houses and potentially applying for a mortgage pretty soon.

I have been looking at their Flexclusives mortage offer with free standard legal fees, and 4-year fixed rate. To get this deal you have to have a Flex current account with them. I asked in branch last week about whether I could open a FlexDirect current account with them soon before our mortgage application and they said yes, as I was an existing Save To Buy customer already it would be a very quick process. I would need the FlexDirect account before getting a Decision in Principle in order to be offered the Flexclusives deal.

My worry is that opening a current account would presumably involve a credit check, I saw this on the MSE "Best Bank Accounts" article page. Would having this recent credit check logged on my file affect our chances of getting a mortgage when they do the credit check for that soon after? I am worried about our credit file as it is - we do not have any defaults or missed payments but simply do not have that much on our credit history - I have a car currently on finance (have paid for 18 months so far) and my boyfriend has a mobile phone contract but those are pretty much the only regular payments we have, neither of us have ever had credit cards.

Any advice would be appreciated on whether opening a FlexDirect account with them so soon before the mortgage application would be risky would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Thrugelmir

If you are intending to use NW for your mortgage. Then utilising them for other services should not be an issue.

soulvacation

Thanks very much for your reply.

So you are saying that if NW carry out a credit check when they open my current account, when they carry out a second credit check for our Decision in Principle they would recognise that the first check was done by them?

Or do you just mean you think it is not worth worrying about?

Thanks again,

Sarah

Thrugelmir

There's nothing inherently wrong with credit checks.

A current account isn't a form of borrowing either.