Halifax Mortgage Process and Recommendations 2017

Ben2522

Hi all.
I just wanted to give my experience of dealing with Halifax for my mortgage and offer my advice. I to searched these forums out of stress and inability to wait patiently ha.
Questions you may have:

• I have bad credit will I be accepted
• Should I use a broker
• how long does the process take
• what do I need to be doing to better my chances

This is my experience.

Me and my partner decided back in 2015 that we wanted to own our own home. We are both now 27 and 25 earning 20,000 and 25.000. Its now 2017 and we have saved using the help to buy isas, (better than the 5% rubbish as you have to have a top credit rating for that, however they wont tell you until its to late) My credit history is shakey meaning that I have 3 defaults (all settled in 2014) and a number of pay day loans. So very shakey.
Enough said, my rating is poor on noddle with a score of 540 out of 700, the national average is 603. I have a credit card that im about 800 into and my partner has a 1800 loan. She has a stable credit rating with no marks. For the last 3 years I haven't missed any payments. As you can see, I wasn't confident about getting a mortgage. We did things slightly backwards and chose a house first. The house value is 228500 and we thought we would put down a 10% deposit.
So we chose our house and then decided to go with London and County as they charge nothing and do everything. Spent about a hour on the phone with the adviser at the free broker, he said that because of my slightly colourful past with credit he would advise we go with Halifax. We decided on a 15% deposit because you are more likely to be accepted with poorer credit. Plus 15% took the monthly price down by £100 per month apposed to 10%. We also had 30k given as a gift and only had to provide a letter to Halifax stating that it wasnt a loan but some would also be used for the deposit. .Within 2 hours had and agreement in principle with Halifax. Then we chose our conveyance solicitor and they wanted us to pay for searched their and then. We held off as we couldn't afford to lose the £300 they wanted for the searches unless we actually got the mortgage. We filed the full mortgage application (no extra time required as the broker took all payslips 1 for me and 6 months for my partner and our help to buy bank statements in the beginning. This then went to the lender and the next day Halifax said they wanted 1 month of my bank statements from me only and that's it ( I suspect its because they wanted to see my monthly spend and if I went into my overdraft due to my poor credit in the past)
The day after that the broker said that we had been accepted and the valuation was being done that day. Valuation came back the same as we are paying and then Halifax sent our full formal offer out the same day to us and our solicitor. SO. Moral of the storey if your reading this. Stop worrying or stressing etc.

Things to absolutly do for the best experience:

• Save money over a length of time and be able to demonstrate that in a full statement( says a lot about you to the bank)
• choose a solicitor that is on the Halifax approved list or you will have problems
• London and County are a must without question I couldn't fault them and i'm a !!!!.
• provide all information truthfully and quickly
• have funds to pay around £730 for valuation fee(with halifax and searched(solicitor)
• Dont go into your overdraft for 6 months (not a deal breaker) But if your not living within you means then perhaps think if your ready.
• if you have credit and your telling them your going to pay before completion, make sue you do

Feel free to ask me anything. Im no mortgage guru but I have had a positive experience.

hunt85

Great post and I could have written it!

amnblog

Our OP was fortunate enough to pass credit score with a Halifax - good luck to them.

However, don't take this as a signal to rush to Halifax if you have defaults and pay day loans on your credit file.

saheeda

Don’t know if you could help
Credits score are fine
Did the aip last month and
We were declined the aip due to me having an active payday loan even though this was closed in may 2018 so its incorrect
My partners credit is fine I am fair on experian and poor on equifax
I had payday loans in 2017 all cleared, £500 overdarft no ccjs or defualts etc and two late paymetsn in my vodafone account which ive had for 6 years now
Hopefully the full app will go though
Any thoughts?