Mortgage affordability - what's included?

maisonette

[SIZE=-1]I've been looking at mortgage affordability calculators, particularly for Nationwide as I have a save to buy account with them so would get £1000 cashback plus the standard £500 cashback if I took a mortgage with them.[/SIZE]
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I'll need to go direct to Nationwide to qualify for the cashback I believe so don't have a broker to ask this Q... On inputting my details into the Nationwide affordability calculator it says

'include here any other regular outgoings, other than food shopping, utility bills and any other day to day living costs that you haven't already provided and that you wouldn't want to give up, in order to pay your mortgage payments'.

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[SIZE=-1]I have pet insurance policies that cost £85 per month, steep but something I wouldn't give up - I assume as this is a regular direct debit I'd need to include this (even though I wouldn't have to give it up as the mortgage is affordable to me without giving this up)... including it as an expense reduces the amount they'd lend by £13,000 which means I couldn't afford the house I'm thinking of offering on.[/SIZE]

The affordability calculators for other banks don't seem to ask this, for example Halifax merely asks for credit commitments monthly payments to remain, credit card balances remaining and buy to let mortgage payments remaining. Unfortunately Halifax don't offer the £1500 cashback though, hence why I'm keen to go with Nationwide.

[SIZE=-1]Going back to Nationwide, with regards travel costs does anyone know if I can say that I will be getting rid of my car (it's a lease deal that runs out in September) as I intend to cycle to work - would they be likely to accept that given there's only around 6 months to run and therefore not include the car as travelling expenses? I can afford to pay the remaining car payments off if needed.
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The mortgage will be less than I've been paying in rent for the last 10 years so it definitely feels afforable to me, plus I'll have surplus cash each month so from my perspective it's not going to be tight at all so I'm not trying to work around an unaffordable situation.
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maisonette

A gentle bump in case anybody can offer any advice.

ACG

You are looking at things now, lenders look at it if/when rates rise and base their calculations on around 7-8% interest.

The best people to ask are nationwide.

maisonette

ACG wrote: »

You are looking at things now, lenders look at it if/when rates rise and base their calculations on around 7-8% interest.

The best people to ask are nationwide.

Thanks, just seems to be a big difference between what Nationwide will lend compared to the other banks (had a quick look at Natwest and Halifax affordability calculators). I've no debts at all so my finances are as good as they're ever going to be.

ACG

Every bank has their own affordability calculations. It is all about finding the one that favours you.

I have 3 cases at the minute where the clients want absolute maximum income stretches. One in particular, Nationwide will lend £93,000 where as Halifax will lend...£0.

I think the best I have seen is one lender would lend a client £48,000 where as every other lender I checked with would lend close to 5 times that! £200k difference, all because of some wording in their criteria.

Its just one of those things. There may be things you can do to help, extend the term, use bonuses/overtime etc.