Nasty ex and divorce ruining my credit rating

Geminicagedbird

Please can someone offer some advice. I am so upset, my credit rating was very good but now is very poor. All because my ex stopped paying the mortgage 2 years ago and Nationwide put it to interest only on a temp basis. I have been paying my half but can't afford his half. He btw can afford it ( just says he can't), has a 80k a year job and fat inheritence so won't need another mortgage but I will some day but I'm scared it will never happen now 😞 It's so unfair, I've always been so good with money and I was paying my half. 😞 Can I rebuild my credit rating? How long will it take and what are the best ways?
My ex was a cheating, abusive man. Has destroyed me, everything and now even this. 😢

dieselv2

With Nationwide putting it to interest only, I'm assuming you've explained your current situation to them?

National_Debtline

Hi there and welcome to MSE,


Any joint debts will need to be cleared and the accounts closed so that you can file a financial disassociation from your ex, once that is done your credit files won't influence each other's any longer. Are there any plans to sell the house?


You can ensure that you have done things such as register correctly on the electoral role and keep your financial commitments up to date (clearing the full balance monthly wherever possible). We have a factsheet about credit files that may help - https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/credit-referencing/credit-reports.aspx


Laura
@natdebtline

Dr-Ken

Hi there,

First of all I'm terribly sorry to hear of the predicament your ex has put you in. I'd like to reassure you though that all is not lost!

First and foremost, regarding the figure you see as your Credit Rating that you see on Experian/Equifax/Noddle or whoever you use. Lenders will not see that figure, only you do. What they see is the details of your credit commitments and they look at how you've managed them. The "score" so to speak is a guideline for you only so if you have a low score, that doesn't mean that you cannot get credit.

When it comes to mortgage lending, there are a myriad of lenders out there that take adverse credit into account and a lot of them do manual underwriting so there's much less of the "computer says no" attitude out there than what people might think.

How have you managed your own individual credit commitments? - Have you missed any payments or gone into arrears on those? ... If a lender can see that your credit file is clean as a whistle with the only exception being a mortgage you have in joint name with someone else then they can put 2 and 2 together. From what you've told me there are a lot of mortgage lenders out there that would understand your situation and be able to help, but as I said it largely depends how you've managed your own individual finances and how much evidence you can provide to support what you're saying.