Mortgage Application - some advice needed please

Dutch02

Hello All,

My wife and I are shortly going to be applying for a new, larger mortgage as we are going to be up sizing after only 2 years in our current home. Our details income details as follows:

Me:
Base Salary: £49,000
Bonus / Overtime: £~10,000

Wife:
Base Salary: £22,000
Bonus / Overtime: £1000

We have £11,000 debt at 0% which we regretfully accrued furnishing our home / getting married, and i worry how much of an impact this will have on any mortgage application.

I also have a number of other credit cards open that i used to balance transfer the debt to keep it at 0%, for example my Credit Cards look as follows:

MBNA - £11,000 outstanding (Paying off £200 a month via DD)
Barclay Card - £0 outstanding, limit of £12,000
Tesco Banks - £0 outstanding, Limit of £11,000

Should i be closing these old accounts? Having them open helps with my ultilisation, however i wonder if they would be seen as a red flag? We have no missed payments and both have excellent experian reports (if that's any guide to go by)

With the £11,000 debt, would it be sensible to use a mortgage broker in this case?

Many Thanks in Advance

ACG

£11k debt in itself will not be a problem. Your combined incomes are quite good so when you look at the bigger picture it is not too bad - could be better, but by no means the end of the world.

It will affect affordability to some degree. So it may limit the size of mortgage you can get but there is not enough information to say for sure.

A broker is rarely a bad idea, but we are not always needed.

Dutch02

Thanks ACG.

Did you have any thoughts on the credit cards and whether having the accounts still open is a pro / con? Or is it largely irrelevant?

ACG

It is unlikely to be a deal breaker, but I suppose closing one would not necessarily be a bad thing.
You currently have over £30k available to you which is a lot.