Applying for a mortgage - bank statements

jetaylor97

Hi,
[Intro]
New to the forum and couldn't find any info using the search feature for a similar questions and google only brings back a few sites.

[Question]
So I'm 21 years old and starting to plan ahead for getting my first mortgage in about 12 to 16 months time depending on how saving goes. I read online for getting your bank statements in order to be attractive to a lender It's advised to cut down on any leisurely spending and subscriptions (of course) but as an alternative to having tons of direct debits coming out your bank you can instead just do said spending on a credit card and set a direct debit to clear it in full each month.

[Background]
I'm just wondering does anyone have experience of doing this when applying for a mortgage as I'm sceptical to how it would look instead of having a bunch of normal direct debits having a large sum go to a credit card provider each month which IMO could look worse. (I've also noticed a few threads on here in the past of lenders asking for credit card statements which would put the theory out the window).

Any info would be appreciated and no rush of course

Thanks,

firstbuyer

I had no 'prep' for my bank statements - but after being through the process, just make sure you're in credit every month & do not have any returned DD's!

They really do not nit pick about an extra £5 spent on a food shop one month or if you spent £400 on shoes - don't panic

sal_III

"prepping" your bank statements might backfire. The Lender will expect you to have several regular outgoings like utility bills, council tax. Bundling all that into 1 CC balance outgoing each month might look too clean and point to you hiding something in another account (which you essentially do).

Not sure where you got the idea from but the best way to approach this is to be honest with the lender and keep doing what you are doing. They don't care if you made lavish purchases, they are mostly looking for undeclared dept servicing etc. (another reason why your idea with the cc is bad).

jetaylor97

Thanks for the replies! I think I seen it on a telegraph list of things to do hence why I wanted to see if anyone had any experience as I was pretty skeptical too but sounds like solid advice.

Klr005

jetaylor97 wrote: »

but as an alternative to having tons of direct debits coming out your bank you can instead just do said spending on a credit card and set a direct debit to clear it in full each month.

Lots of people do this regularly for their spending anyway. Its a good way to build up your credit rating too but your mortgage lender will want to see all statements so even if you choose to do this, they'll see your CC statements and total spending.

You can't really avoid having them see how much you spend.