Previously agreed mortgage application rejected

Kheeli

Hi all!

We got a mortgage agreed in January this year (we're first time buyers). We needed to wait until my Mums house has sold, which it now has so we returned to Halifax to get it sorted out properly.

We had a different woman, which we weren't totally confident with. Anyway we were rejected because of my credit score. I was 24 hours late paying £35 to Next last month (I've rang them and they've said there's nothing they can do) I'm not sure which credit score company Halifax use, but when I checked my scores are:

Noddle 1/5 (only negative thing on there is the 1 late next payment)
Experian 816 ('Fair', quite out of date information on there, I'm in the process of updating it)
Equifax 498 ('excellent, average is 430 it says, it does show the late next payment but it's the only bad thing on there, and they don't class it as 'too bad').

So I guess my query is, is it likely we've been turned down because they checked with Noddle? Can I find somewhere that specifically checks with equifax? And how much are the new rules effecting mortgage applications (the lady only mentioned childcare, which we don't pay).

I guess that last question is more for the mortgage forum! Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you

[Deleted User]

If the late payment appears on Equifax as well, then lenders will see it.

The fact that one CRA has scored you highly and the other low means nothing, as they don't lend money.

You may want to enlist the help of a broker to find a lender who may be more lenient.

The_Boss

You don't have a credit score. Halifax have scored your mortgage application using data on your credit files plus information you have provided in your application and you've not met their requirements for a mortgage under their scoring matrix for this product.

SuperHan

The scores don't mean anything (as you can see). They are just an interpretation by that credit reference agency, which is totally subjective. The bank won't have seen your scores, they will have seen the information and interpreted it themselves and created a different credit score for you based on their opinions. And that's what's not good enough.

AFAIK (and it's not much!) they will consider almost all expenditure, including travel costs to and from work, cars, grocery shopping etc when considering affordability. They also won't consider any savings made by moving (such as lower childcare or less travel costs). And they test whether you could afford if interest rates move upwards, as they inevitably will.

However, it doesn't sound as though affordability is your issue. Time is going to be the best thing to heal your late payment. It could be worth trying one other lender, if you are all ready to go and it's just the mortgage holding you up. One late payment shouldn't be the end of the world. However, if you get declined from a second lender, you will be racking up a lot of checks, so it could be worth waiting another 6 months after that.

Kheeli

Thanks for all your help :-) Interesting to see how it works! I think we'll try a broker and cross our fingers, not much we can do if not sadly.