Any tips for filling in new mortgage application forms

cloo

These sound like a real pain in the bum, so would be glad to hear of any top tips people have for making sure you get it right!

We're not FTBs and are not borrowing a great deal extra so I'm not too worried about the outcome, but any help appreciated to minimise stress.

stator

I didn't find the Post Office's morgage application forms a particular problem

ACG

Answer the questions as they are asked - not how you think they should be answered.

cloo

Thanks... two things I'm wondering about how or if they can be covered:
1) I know it asks for spend on big things like holidays, but a lot of that (from me at least) comes out of historic savings that I may not have had that much income into during the period being described, so it's not like it's coming immediately out of my income. Can I explain that anywhere?
2) Our childcare bills are only a few hundred pounds shy of my take home income, but when we move we'll have the room to have an au pair and then our childcare costs will drop quite a lot (an au pair would cover our daughter around the school day and we'd move our son to a pre school during daytime, which would be much cheaper than nursery). Will we be able to express this anywhere? I've got the impression for some sources we can, but we should have some sort of figure for what we expect it to change to.

ACG

1) It asks what your monthly expenditure is. If you are not putting money away each month then it is not monthly expenditure.
2) This is something I would run by the lender before even making an application.