Do savings have any bearing on your credit file?

tain

I'm saving with my fiance for a mortgage deposit. She has ISAs in her name, which have just matured. Her credit history is perfect, whereas I had defaults ~4 years ago which are still on my file.

Is it worth us transferring future savings to an ISA in my name? We'd be looking to put about £8-10k away for a year fixed.

If there's no credit history benefit, then I'm not sure if the effort is worth it.

[Deleted User]

No.

Although any given lender would have the option of looking within their own systems to see what other products you held with them. .

tain

Deleted_User wrote: »

No.

Although any given lender would have the option of looking within their own systems to see what other products you held with them. .

So if I was looking to get a mortgage with Halifax, it might be a benefit for them to see my savings history so they can play this off against my credit history?

At the moment there is next to no benefit of the savings being in my fiance's name, so even a small edge like this would be worth the trouble.

On_my_way

You are probably better off both having savings in your own names and no debt at all.

Tixy

tain wrote: »

So if I was looking to get a mortgage with Halifax, it might be a benefit for them to see my savings history so they can play this off against my credit history?

At the moment there is next to no benefit of the savings being in my fiance's name, so even a small edge like this would be worth the trouble.

It won't make any difference whose name the savings are in, and definitely not just transferring a lump sum from her name to yours.

A mortgage lender will assess your credit files/history individually and your affordability together.

What a potential mortgage lender will likely be interested in is evidence that between the 2 of you, you have been making regular savings in to a savings account.

Some building socs (nationwide are one) offer "save to buy" / "home saver" accounts, which may be worth looking in to.
If you will be planning to apply for a mortgage with the defaults still showing on your file then your choice of lender may be more restricted. It would probably be worth speaking to a morgtgae broker about the chance of a particular lender accepting you before considering a save to buy type product.

General_Grant

Remember too that it is not possible to do a straight switch from an ISA owned by one person into an ISA owned by another. Any money switched (via another account) would lose its Tax-Free nature and therefore would be limited to the then current year's allowance of the person to which it was moved.

tain

On_my_way wrote: »

You are probably better off both having savings in your own names and no debt at all.

We would have savings in each name, and we don't have any debt.

What's your reasoning?

tain

Tixy wrote: »

It won't make any difference whose name the savings are in, and definitely not just transferring a lump sum from her name to yours.

A mortgage lender will assess your credit files/history individually and your affordability together.

What a potential mortgage lender will likely be interested in is evidence that between the 2 of you, you have been making regular savings in to a savings account.

Some building socs (nationwide are one) offer "save to buy" / "home saver" accounts, which may be worth looking in to.
If you will be planning to apply for a mortgage with the defaults still showing on your file then your choice of lender may be more restricted. It would probably be worth speaking to a morgtgae broker about the chance of a particular lender accepting you before considering a save to buy type product.

Excellent, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the help.

tain

General_Grant wrote: »

Remember too that it is not possible to do a straight switch from an ISA owned by one person into an ISA owned by another. Any money switched (via another account) would lose its Tax-Free nature and therefore would be limited to the then current year's allowance of the person to which it was moved.

I've got zero in any ISAs, so we've got that covered. Cheers.

On_my_way

Sorry I should have explained my reasoning.

First it was because of the issues of transferring money from ISA's and secondly, you are both applying for the mortgage so you both need to have savings.

thebritishbloke

I hope you've already taken advantage of all the interest-paying current accounts before you lock yourself into an ISA paying <2%.

TSB Classic Plus - £2000 @ 5%
Nationwide FlexDirect - £2500 @ 5% for 12 months
Club Lloyds - £5000 @ 4%
Bank of Scotland - £5000 @ 3%
Tesco Bank x2 - £6000 @ 3%

These are all current accounts, so you don't have to lock the money in either. Just make sure you fulfil the funding requirements on the account (i.e. TSB Classic Plus needs £500 paid in per month. You can transfer £500 in and then straight back out and you've fulfilled the requirement for that calendar month).

Also the Halifax Reward Current account for £5/Month free money.