Accuracy of mortgage calculators

alchemist.1

Hi guys,

How accurate are mortgage calculators on Bank/Building Society websites in terms of how much you can borrow (as long a the figures you enter are correct) e.g the Nationwide one? The same with Decisions in Principle.

Can anybody give an insight?

betmunch

They are only as good as the info you put in.

You need to know how each lender will treat each of your outgoings and use those figures. For example some mobile phone contracts are treated as loans by some lenders if they split the bill and the new handset portions.

Once you know exactly what the lender wants to know about you and what your figures are you should be able to get a 100 accurate figure from their calculator

TravelBugHappy

I don't think they're very accurate - for example Halifax calculator gives me one amount, then the halifax for intermediaries site says I could lend more then my actual DIP from them was much bigger than both. These are all halifax calculators/systems?

cns06

You will only know for sure with a DIP and even that's subject to change.

alchemist.1

Thanks for your responses guys. Much appreciated.

Seems like DIP stage will give me a better idea.

ACG

Most are fairly accurate.

If everything within your cirucmtances fits somewhere or another in the caluclator then they should be ok.

Some lenders would lend differing amounts depending on yoru credit score but not many do it that way.

StreetHawk

Sorry to butt in , have also been trying out the Halifax calculator but it only asks for monthly credit commitments not all monthly expenses. At which point do they take into account all your other monthly outgoings, energy, car running costs, food shopping etc etc ?

ACG

They use ONS figures, although if yours is massively out from teh average person then you may find it has some impact.

StreetHawk

Thanks ACG