Halifax Mortgage Application - FTB

FTBHTBScotland

Hi,

I am a first time nervous buyer looking for some advice - we are buying through the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scotland - which we have approval for. We have reserved a new build and received a mortgage promise from Halifax on 22 January.

We are going through a mortgage Broker who submitted the full application yesterday, Halifax only needed a copy of my husbands last payslip as I bank with them.

We paid the valuation fee yesterday after the application was submitted - my question is when do Halifax credit check at full application? Have they already credit checked to allow payment for the valuation to be taken or is that automatically taken when the application is submitted?

If Halifax were to decline because of the credit check/score how long would that take, would it be automatic at the time of application or does it take a few days to process?

The only checks showing on my Experian report are 3 Mortgage Quotation/Identification: Generic Check on the 22/1/15 at time of the mortgage promise then 3 more Mortgage Quotation checks on 4/3/15 when the full application was submitted.

kingstreet

It was scored at full app submission and the fee charged.

You may never see a hard search recorded.

Halifax system re-checks regularly during process, so until completion you can never be 100% sure of anything. Don't apply for any new credit during this time and try to avoid doing anything which may change your credit profile.

glasgowgirl80

Im in a similar boat to you, help to buy scotland and Halifax mortgage. I had my mortgage offer through on Monday and they never did a full credit search at all! I had about five 'soft searches' but they haven't done a full one. Not sure why to be honest....

glasgowgirl80

Kingstreet - would these ongoing searches be hard or soft? What would change your credit profile? I assume using credit cards or applying for credit?

kingstreet

Multiple soft-searches with one done every time something changes. Once the case has been offered, there could be one done if there's an alteration needed, another done when the certificate of title is received etc.

Searches, late payments, missed payments and everything north of there in terms of severity.

Obviously keeping your nose clean if your current account is with LBG would also be essential.

FTBHTBScotland

Great - Thanks for getting back to me! So its looking good, and yes we are not going to do anything which may change our credit profile - what could decline an application at this stage?

glasgowgirl80 - Congratulations - how long did it take you for your mortgage offer to come through?

glasgowgirl80

My valuation was done last thursday and I had the offer through the door on Monday, so very quickly.

I'm not counting my chickens because we have a complicated deposit situation so things could still go wrong but I have been impressed with Halifax, my full application to offer was less than 10 days (not working days either!).

FTBHTBScotland

Wow - That's fast, must be such a relief to have the offer through - I'm sure the complicated deposit situation shouldn't affect things to much!?

I'm going to be a nervous wreck waiting for news!!