Does any central 'mortgage register' exist?

cordial

homer_j wrote: »

yes they are on about experian, equifax, call credit. These are credit referencing agencies.

If you get any form of credit, it is quite normal for the institute, whether it be your mortgage co, mobile phone co or credit card co to leave a record of your payment history and to to show that they have looked at your file. The reason why it is so normal is because each of these institutes have a common interest in ensuring that anybody wanting to lend you money is fully aware of what you are like as a customer and your ability to repay. It forms part of a bigger process which will enable any lender to make a decision about you as an individual.

A lender asks you on the application for numerous reasons but the main one is to ensure that what you tell them matches the credit file. They do not rely on the application alone nor the credit file alone - they will look at both and make a decision on that.

My highlights - so this can mean very little other (since the credit file tells the truth of the matter) than the fact that the application form represents some kind of 'veracity test'.

Bizarre in the extreme.

MortgageMamma

Not at all bizzare. in this day and age there is too much fraud going on and lenders have to check the integrity of their applicants in their risk assessments on you before they choose to lend money to you. We are all bound under the money laundering rules to make vigorous checks on applicants using the documetns you supply us with, the information you put on your application form and reasonability. you would not believe how many self employed taxi drivers approach a broker stating they want a self cert mortgage, they have no IR documentation and they earn £100k a year....

homer_j_3

credit files can be wrong - mobile phone companies have been notorious in registering defaults incorrectly in my opinion.

The point of the lender asking about exisiting commitments is that they use this information as part of the overall credit scoring process and application process.

Charlton_King

MortgageMamma wrote: »

Not at all bizzare. in this day and age there is too much fraud going on and lenders have to check the integrity of their applicants in their risk assessments on you before they choose to lend money to you. We are all bound under the money laundering rules to make vigorous checks on applicants using the documetns you supply us with, the information you put on your application form and reasonability. you would not believe how many self employed taxi drivers approach a broker stating they want a self cert mortgage, they have no IR documentation and they earn £100k a year....

You haven't twigged.

Cordial's point - and my OP - is to ask why, if a verifiable third-party information source is already available, is an applicant obliged laboriously to repeat this on a mortgage application form..?

If the potential lender is going to check anyway, why not cut this part of the application process out? It is weird and, as cordial said, amounts to some kind of truthfulness check. What else - apart from bureaucratic, repetitive nit-picking - can it represent?

homer_j_3

its simple really - they do it because its their money to lend. I dont think putting the form filler out by asking them to answer the question really sits at the top of their list when designing these forms.

If you were to ask me to lend you £100k or whatever amount you were applying for - I would want to know as much as I could about you and assess your creditworthiness. I would not trust experian on its own. I would want to check - your integrity, what your payment history is like with other lenders, whether you have has your house reposessed before, whether you are trying to apply to 4 other people to get a mortgage at the same time.

Your opinion is just that and the lenders who lend money have theirs. They do it to try and ensure that they fully understand the risk and show the FSA that they lend responsibly.

HelpWhereIcan

Charlton_King wrote: »

You haven't twigged.

Cordial's point - and my OP - is to ask why, if a verifiable third-party information source is already available, is an applicant obliged laboriously to repeat this on a mortgage application form..?

If the potential lender is going to check anyway, why not cut this part of the application process out? It is weird and, as cordial said, amounts to some kind of truthfulness check. What else - apart from bureaucratic, repetitive nit-picking - can it represent?

Maybe because they want to be sure that you are who you say you are.

For example, an identity thief can get enough info such as your full name, date of birth and address very easily. What they cannot get as easily is all your current credit commitments, who your mortgage is with etc etc.

Somehow I get the feeling that you would be the first to scream blue murder if a lender gave someone a mortgage in your name using just a basic set of info. You cannot have it all ways, fraud is a big problem and one that could affect you if lenders do not ensure that they check an application fully

http://www.mortgageintroducer.com/ccstory/24131/135/Police_on_hunt_for_mortgage_fraudsters.htm

Why you find is strange that someone looking to lend you £000s thinks they have the right to see if you voluntarily provide all relevant information rather than them having to uncover it, I do not know.

Rather than being bureaucratic nit picking, it is a truthfulness check - making sure that the person applying is who they say they are and that they are of sufficient honesty to disclose all relevant info.

You must be fairly young. If you think the mortgage application process of today is long winded, I don't think you could have had any practical experience of a mortgage application even 5 - 10 years ago.

CVID

I'm a bit confused by this thread.

I've read it through from start to finish and can't decide eaxctly what it is that lenders do.

Do they all immediately register the loans they make with every 'credit referencing' company? Do some of them not register their loans? Do some only register loans where payments are defaulted on?

Knowing the typical British organisational wooliness, it wouldn't surprise me if it were some hotchpotch like this.

MortgageMamma

Charlton_King wrote: »

You haven't twigged.

Cordial's point - and my OP - is to ask why, if a verifiable third-party information source is already available, is an applicant obliged laboriously to repeat this on a mortgage application form..?

If the potential lender is going to check anyway, why not cut this part of the application process out? It is weird and, as cordial said, amounts to some kind of truthfulness check. What else - apart from bureaucratic, repetitive nit-picking - can it represent?

I have twigged. I know exactly what you are on about and I gave you exactly the right response. As already stated by the advisers above, It is a truthfulness check and to prevent fraud.

ALL LENDERS ask these details on their applications forms as ALL LENDERS have the same responsibilties, not just to minimise their own personal risks financially, but report fraudulent activity where necessary.

EVERYONE who applies for a mortgage has their application form matched with credit reference bureaus and the reposession register and bankruptcy searches are all done.

The process is 100% necessary, as the money laundering rules that we are bound by state that the organisation responsible for the lending, and all other organisations connected, (i.e. brokers) have to make independent checks and not rely wholly on the information provided from the introducing party or any other third parties - i.e. credit reference agencies and the like.

If you don't like the process you only have fraudulent individuals and organisations to blame for the current measures. The measures are there to protect you as an individual, and to prevent criminals laundering money made from or to fund criminal activities such as drugs and terrorism. For the time it takes to complete such details on an application form most people would only be too grateful for the high level of protection afforded to them by the UK Money Laundering Regulations.

MortgageMamma

CVID wrote: »

I'm a bit confused by this thread.

I've read it through from start to finish and can't decide eaxctly what it is that lenders do.

Do they all immediately register the loans they make with every 'credit referencing' company? Do some of them not register their loans? Do some only register loans where payments are defaulted on?

Knowing the typical British organisational wooliness, it wouldn't surprise me if it were some hotchpotch like this.

To be honest, only so much can be said about the process. Lenders have methods that even brokers dont hold as common knowledge, the process is not disclosed for public speculation for security purposes - the more information criminals have about the process the more ways around it they will find

CVID

MortgageMamma wrote: »

To be honest, only so much can be said about the process. Lenders have methods that even brokers dont hold as common knowledge, the process is not disclosed for public speculation for security purposes - the more information criminals have about the process the more ways around it they will find

I'm afraid that this answer only makes sense if there is one single, unified process which is government regulated (and probably government run), with the answer to the OP's original title question being 'yes'.

As it is, it looks like 'the process' has been left to the vagaries of the market with umpteen credit referencing companies sticking their oar in.

As such, the answer to the question is most definitely 'no', with all the usual suspects of fraud, vested interest, muddle, commercial jealousies and downright incompetence managing to get a look in.