Halifax mortgage

Ayslynne

Hi everyone,

I know there are a lot of posts about this but everyones circumstances are different and I thought I'd post mine to see if anyone is in a very similar situation...

I have 2 defaults on my credit file - both registered in 2014 one for £307 (credit card) and the other for £37 (Virgin Media). The £37 was settled in 2014 and the £307 was settled in May 2015 - I am aware that settlement dates don't mean much though and lenders are only interested in the default registered date.

My partner and I have been saving for a while for a deposit - he has a clean credit history and mine has been good the last 2 years since those defaults. Our only current credit is our car finance which is only in my boyfriends name and then we both have o2 mobile contracts at £37 each per month. We also live at his parents just now and do pay them rent but obviously that isn't something that would continue to be paid once we moved out.

I applied today through Halifax for a Decision in Principle and was so shocked when the screen changed to say they were delighted to offer me a 'mortgage promise' (decision in principle).

They have offered us a maximum of £106,165 with a minimum deposit of 10% - this is actually ideal because we have been looking at properties with a maximum price of £106,000 and we currently have £11,000 saved for a deposit.

I am concerned though about the next stage. Their website does state under Decision in Principle "Our mortgage promise provides a full mortgage credit score facility using minimal information." Does that mean that it has done a credit search on me where it would pick up my defaults?

I just wanted to get some advice on here before I arranged to go in and see someone in Halifax.

Thanks in advance!

Thrugelmir

Ayslynne wrote: »

I am aware that settlement dates don't mean much though and lenders are only interested in the default registered date.

I would disagree with your assertion. Settlement date says a lot about you personally as a potential borrower. Who would want to lend you £'000's on a mortgage when you struggle to repay a couple of hundred pounds in a timely manner.

The question is do your infringements fall beneath the lenders own criteria.

chromac

Hey, I'm going through a similar process - I found that the DIP/MP/AIP depends on lender to lender - however most of the automated instant checks that you find on the likes of natwest/halifax etc. websites, do a quick affordability check (which they take your word for) and a 'quotation check' on your credit report - which leaves a soft imprint on your report - and basically just checks to make sure that what you told them is backed up by what you disclosed on the application for your DIP/MP/AIP etc.

due to having defaults like yourself, this made me uneasy - so off to a mortgage broker I went - and he approached Santander, who declined straight away based on defaults - and Barclays who accepted.

Now, both of these DIP's produced hard checks on my credit report - so I could relax a bit safe in the knowledge that the DIPs carried a bit more weight - We are submitting the mortage application on friday, so heres hoping for a positive result

Best of luck to you, please update with how you get on

Ayslynne

Thrugelmir - this is just me going on what mortgage advisers have told me in the past but they were quite unhelpful so probably shouldn't have really taken their word for it!

Ayslynne

chromac - this has reassured me! Are your defaults quite recent on your credit report? Before I did the AIP on Halifax it did say it would only do a soft search so I'm assuming it probably hasn't picked up any "adverse" issues on my report yet.

I'm glad to hear that Barclays were fine with your defaults - if I have no luck with Halifax I could always try them!

I had spoken to independant mortgage advisers who told me I'd need 15% deposit or that I'd be better waiting months longer before applying but I just feel like they were being a bit unhelpful, none of them ever made the effort to actually at least try and get me a mortgage from somewhere.

Good luck with your application on Friday, hope it all goes well!! I'll keep a look out for your update too

chromac

As I am eligible for a help to buy equity loan, my deposit amount is effectively 25% which makes it a bit more attractive to them. However htb compatible mortgages do have slightly different criteria so mine could still be declined on that basis......

luis1988

chromac wrote: »

Hey, I'm going through a similar process - I found that the DIP/MP/AIP depends on lender to lender - however most of the automated instant checks that you find on the likes of natwest/halifax etc. websites, do a quick affordability check (which they take your word for) and a 'quotation check' on your credit report - which leaves a soft imprint on your report - and basically just checks to make sure that what you told them is backed up by what you disclosed on the application for your DIP/MP/AIP etc.

due to having defaults like yourself, this made me uneasy - so off to a mortgage broker I went - and he approached Santander, who declined straight away based on defaults - and Barclays who accepted.

Now, both of these DIP's produced hard checks on my credit report - so I could relax a bit safe in the knowledge that the DIPs carried a bit more weight - We are submitting the mortage application on friday, so heres hoping for a positive result

Best of luck to you, please update with how you get on

Hey chromac - interesting to see what you said regarding the Santander DIP. We have a DIP from them from around 2/3 weeks ago and still no soft or hard search has appeared. Our MA submitted our full application on Thursday and rang today to say all has been accepted subject to valuation. Yet still no searches at all have appeared?! In fact, my Experian 'score' has jumped from 900ish to nearly 960 in this time?! Any ideas?

mrshughes86

Hi Aslynne,
I recently got a mortgage with Halifax, and between my husband and had 6 defaults (all settled) on our files from 2011 when we started a DMP.
The DIP we got from Halifax was for £325k, but when we actually did the full application and they saw our full credit history it was reduced to a 75% LTV of the property we wanted to buy - so and offer of £243k
It sounds like your defaults were a lot less severe than mine, but just be prepared that they might reduce the LTV offer once full affordability and credit check is done.

Ayslynne

Hi mrshughes86

Thanks for your message! This has given me some reassurance. Both my defaults are settled and my credit the last 2 years has been great, the only active credit I pay is my phone bill and virgin media so I'm glad to not have any loans outstanding etc.

The property we like is £106,000 and we have just over 10% to put down meaning the actual mortgage loan we would be wanting from them is only around £95,000 so I'm hoping that's an advantage for us too. I really don't want to have to pass on this property and save even more money - getting to the end of my tether living at my boyfriends parents!!

MaryJane365

Hi MrsHughes,

Can I ask at what point Halifax discovered your full credit history after the full application, was it almost instant or was it after valuation? I'm in a similar situation, everything progressing fine several days after the full application but they don't appear to have made any additional credit checks yet and haven't flagged up my default despite me ticking the box to say I have one within the past 6 years which is making me nervous....

mrshughes86

They did the check before the valuation, although my credit report didn't show it for a few days, when it did update the date of the check was the day the full application went in. I believe that they don't instruct the valuation unless you have passed the credit check.