Paying off credit cards before completion

bdwoods

Hi....

I have been accepted for a mortgage and due to complete in the next couple of weeks. The mortgage was approved based on me clearing the balances on two credit cards (circa £4k). Will I have to prove i've cleared these debts, and if so, what will I need to provide? I am a little short and would prefer not to pay off but can borrow from family if needs be.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

kingstreet

You'll need to provide whatever your lender or solicitor requires.

There is no standard answer to cover every possibility.

Mortgagewanted2016

If it's a condition of your mortgage I would assume so, Halifax have said they wanted us to clear a loan and settle credit cards, I think they get the solicitor to ensure this is done before releasing the funds... Not sure though as I'm new to this myself...

Paully232000

We had this as a condition of our mortgage. As far as I can remember we had to send a CC statement through the mortgage company, via our broker, showing the £0 balance of the CC that once had a balance

poppy1010

We were told by our Broker that they don't usually check. We are doing this but it has not been a printed condition on our mortgage offer. We're planning on doing it the same week/day as completion. Realistically they would have no proof we've done it! as credit referencing agencies take 2 months to update (as always in arrears with their updates - I monitor mine). So I think you should be fine. Depends on the lender I guess.

amnblog

Depends on the attitude of your solicitor.

AnotherJoe

Realistically they would have no proof we've done it! as credit referencing agencies take 2 months to update
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But credit card balances shown online and in statements would update overnight.

Its also possible they might come after you a few weeks or months later.

Debtslayer

If it's a condition on you getting the mortgage then I would say you need to pay it! Do you really want to run the risk of not getting your mortgage if you don't pay them off?!
I should think it will be checked by your solicitor as they will be aware of any conditions on your mortgage. Mine was that I had to have house insurance and that was checked do I would think paying off debt definitely will be

HappyMJ

What would they really do?

As soon as you pay them off you can take out a balance transfer the next day and increase the credit card to it's maximum level.

There is no requirement to close the account....just pay it off. Borrow the money from your family then and as soon as you've completed do a balance transfer and pay them back.

amnblog

Most Lender's leave it to the solicitor to ensure the condition is being satisfied.


Most solicitors do nothing other than advising the borrower of the condition.


Some solicitors insist on seeing proof that the balance is cleared.


Very occasionally the lender insists on seeing proof that the balance is cleared.

Mummyto4kids

We have this on our mortgage as a written condition - although our CC is with the Halifax so I assume they can check internally if they wanted to. We have paid it off all bar £100 just to keep something small on it and wont spend on it again until the mortgage has completed. We've also paid our catalogue account and another small CC off because we said we would during our application.


I think the affordability is worked out based on the things you tell them you will and wont have as financial commitments so I wouldn't risk not paying things off - £4k is minimal compared to losing your mortgage offer surely? I don't know whether anyone will check with us prior to completion as views on this seem mixed but we have opted to do what we declared we would and then we wont have any nasty surprises during completion week