Sorting out a financial mess

AeroWill

Hi,

I've been following this forum for a while and there are so many helpful comments that now I find myself in a bit of a situation I thought I'd see whether anyone can help me.

I am married. My husband and I have never owned a property. We were saving for a mortgage, aiming for a 10% deposit, I had hoped we would be in a position to start looking in about 4 months. Unfortunately a month ago I found out my husband had a credit card with 4.5k and was maxing out his overdraft of 2.5k month. I was not aware of this at all and it surprised me as we are both in good jobs and have no legitimate reason to be so in debt.

We are fortunate enough that with some of the money I had put aside we were able to clear the debt in full. We have now gone through his accounts so I can see where things went so wrong and this is being addressed now. But worryingly some of the money about £400 per month was being spent on gambling. There was also a late credit card payment in October, although this has not shown up on any of his credit reports to date.

I think what I'd like to know is how long would my husbands accounts need to be in good order for before we would be considered for a mortgage? I'm not looking to rush into anything as he has some proving himself to do but I need to know how much damage this will have done to our chances and what, if anything we can do to rectify it.

Many thanks in advance.

Thrugelmir

Never lose sight of the fact that time does heal. Little point in worrying about the past. Your energy is best spent focusing on saving using Help to Buy ISA's or LISA's to boost your deposit. The better the deposit you have. Then a greater number of doors will open with a better choice of mortgage products.

ashe

Quite often a late payment with a lender might fall before the report is done so just having a late fee doesn't mean it will be reported as in arrears, as long as the payment is done promptly.

If its not showing on the credit report this should be OK.

Ideally you will want at least 3 months statements to be clear but speak to a mortgage broker. They will be able to advise best course of action and suggest lenders less likely to ask for statements and if you are both good earners and you do have clear credit you may get by with payslips.

adamrobbo84

Hi,

Providing your credit reports are sound (ie no late payments, defaults etc), then you should have no issues obtaining a mortgage. Most lenders will only ask for 3 months statements, so they will have no way of knowing re gambling transactions.

Good luck.