First Time Buyers...

alidai

Hi,

me and my partner are on the way (hopefully) to buying a house we love.

We went to see an advisor at TCA who went through our history with us (not the best credit-wise) and they then went and searched the market for companies who would take us on.

TCA have come back to us with GE Money.

Does anyone know anything about this company and are there any problems we should be looking out for?

The mortgage is for 94000 on a house valued at 138000, as we have a decent deposit to put down (40k).

The mortgage would be for 3.7-3.8 times our combined earnings and because of our history we thought it would not be clever to apply to all of the 'high-street' banks for fear of constant rejections on our credit files.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

herbiesjp

What kind of things are on your credit files? Can you verify your income via payslips etc?

alidai

income can be verified via payslips, the things on our credit files are basically late payments and falling behind with some CC payments ie 1/2 months every now and then.

We were rejected by Northern Rock just before we went to see the TCA broker, who had a look through our credit files before checking with some banks etc.

herbiesjp

What rate have they offered you?

Have you got an up to date copy of your credit files?

alidai

up to date copy of credit files are right here!

The rate is 2 year fixed at 7.04% then variable at 2.24% over the Barclays base rate (ie 7.99% a.t.m)

I realise this is above what is out there, but i know what our credit history is like too.

herbiesjp

I cant really comment either way as I know nothing about your scenario.

However, late payments and "falling behind with some CC payments ie 1/2 months every now and then" whilst not good, is better than bankruptcy, defaults etc. SO whilst you may not be able to get high street rates, you may be able to get a better deal than the one being offered, especially with the loan to value being less than 70%

Are the brokers whole of market or work off a panel ?

As for as GE money are concerned, I think there were a few posts from people (on here recently) stating that the process was taking a long time - but I can't vouch for that as I never use them

alidai

The brokers are a whole-of-market, she mentioned that she was going to search all the offers out there.

She went down the list that our details brought up and came back to us with GE Money. We're going back to see her this morning to talk about applying.

One other thing. Originally we applied for a 94,000 mortgage which was ok, then we said we may need a bit more (97,000), which she then said could only be offered on an interest-only deal. Is this right?

I really want to stick to a capital repayment mortgage rather than interest-only. Although interest only for 2/3 years would be ok.

Thanks for all the info.

herbiesjp

Ask your broker to explain the criteria as to why you have to go interest only at £97k, maybe if you take a little less you can still go repayment.

If you have to go interest only - does teh GE money deal allow for overpayments and is interest calculated daily. At least this way, by you making the overpayments, you can maybe make the payments total what would need to pay on a repayemnt mortgage. This way in 2 years time your mortgage balance will have decreased more or less in line with a repayment mortgage.