Mortgage application after matched betting

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce

Hi all

The past year I've been saving for a mortgage and am slowly getting there. I'd like to boost my savings that bit more and was thinking of matched betting, though I'm aware it could be very risky to do before a mortgage application.

If I kept all the transactions in the separate account and finished all matched betting at least 3 months before the application would the matched betting likely go un-noticed by lenders? My gut tells me it's probably too big a risk to take and I'm better of saving for an extra few months but would be interested to hear viewpoints.

Cakeguts

It is too big a risk to take in all ways.

davidmcn

How are you going to keep it completely separate? If you have transactions going to or from your "secret" account, a lender might ask to see it. No guarantees they'll only look back three months. And if the betting is enough to make a significant difference to your deposit then I suspect they'll regard it as risky.

Exodi

As someone with experience doing this (I was previously making around £1,000 a month from matched betting before having to stop for a mortgage application) and currently in the process of buying a house.

1) These forums have routinely attracted posters that aren't educated in what matched betting is (I'm not implying this is the case for the two posters above me!). Expect replies of "you shouldn't buy a house at all if you're a gambler" or the like.
2) Banks can ask for varying lengths of bank statements, depending on the lender and your circumstances. 3 months would be the minimum, 6 months would be safe-ish.
3) I actually used my main bank account originally when I started (in hindsight, having a second current account would definitely have been easier - only for managing your funds). As long as you stop and withdraw the money 3-6 months before applying for your mortgage, you should have no issues. In the future when it comes to remortgaging, I plan on having a second current account running that does not trade funds with the main account during the remortgage period so I don't need to stop for 6 months!
4) I withdrew the money I had left in accounts exactly 3 months and one day before I applied for a mortgage, in fact if they'd asked for 4+ months statements, they would have seen I withdrew over £5,000 from different bookmakers the days before! I had absolutely no issues at all.

As for my general opinion, it takes a while to 'get going' - whether that's learning the ropes or building a significant balance to snowball. If you plan on buying a house within the next 6 months then you wouldn't gain much by starting now.

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce

davidmcn wrote: »

How are you going to keep it completely separate? If you have transactions going to or from your "secret" account, a lender might ask to see it. No guarantees they'll only look back three months. And if the betting is enough to make a significant difference to your deposit then I suspect they'll regard it as risky.

The only way I saw it working was to do the betting for a few months, transfer all the funds from the matched betting account into my current / savings account, close the matched betting account and wait a minumum of 3 months before applying. From browsing online some people seem to say this is fine but looks dodgy to me.

I can save £400 a month at the minute so matched betting would only realistically add a couple of hundred for a few months, not form the bulk of the deposit. Doesn't look like it's worth the risk but thought I'd ask..

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce

davidmcn wrote: »

How are you going to keep it completely separate? If you have transactions going to or from your "secret" account, a lender might ask to see it. No guarantees they'll only look back three months. And if the betting is enough to make a significant difference to your deposit then I suspect they'll regard it as risky.

Exodi wrote: »

As someone with experience doing this (I was previously making around £1,000 a month from matched betting before having to stop for a mortgage application) and currently in the process of buying a house.

1) These forums have routinely attracted posters that aren't educated in what matched betting is (I'm not implying this is the case for the two posters above me!). Expect replies of "you shouldn't buy a house at all if you're a gambler" or the like.
2) Banks can ask for varying lengths of bank statements, depending on the lender and your circumstances. 3 months would be the minimum, 6 months would be safe-ish.
3) I actually used my main bank account originally when I started (in hindsight, having a second current account would definitely have been easier - only for managing your funds). As long as you stop and withdraw the money 3-6 months before applying for your mortgage, you should have no issues. In the future when it comes to remortgaging, I plan on having a second current account running that does not trade funds with the main account during the remortgage period so I don't need to stop for 6 months!
4) I withdrew the money I had left in accounts exactly 3 months and one day before I applied for a mortgage, in fact if they'd asked for 4+ months statements, they would have seen I withdrew over £5,000 from different bookmakers the days before! I had absolutely no issues at all.

As for my general opinion, it takes a while to 'get going' - whether that's learning the ropes or building a significant balance to snowball. If you plan on buying a house within the next 6 months then you wouldn't gain much by starting now.

Great, thanks a lot.

Alongside my partner's deposit it would only have been some extra "bonus" deposit anyway, so I might wait until we have the home then start then as a side income.

Just out of curiosity - how many hours graft does it take to get £1k a month? I had envisaged a few hours a week to return 200 or so.

Cheers

Exodi

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce wrote: »

The only way I saw it working was to do the betting for a few months, transfer all the funds from the matched betting account into my current / savings account, close the matched betting account and wait a minumum of 3 months before applying. From browsing online some people seem to say this is fine but looks dodgy to me.

I can save £400 a month at the minute so matched betting would only realistically add a couple of hundred for a few months, not form the bulk of the deposit. Doesn't look like it's worth the risk but thought I'd ask..

You could do matched betting from your main bank account if you really wanted. If the bank only asks to see 3 months bank statements and you haven't done matched betting in 3 months then there's really no issue. I personally don't understand what the risk is that you speak of (unless they ask for more than 3 months) but I know people have a knee jerk reaction when 'gambling' and 'mortgage' are put in the same sentence.

Assuming you're a first time buyer, do you currently deposit into a Help To Buy ISA?

nyermen

No opinion on the activity itself, just to say that FYI my conveyancer asked to see the "evidence of the source" of my main deposit funds (they were from inheritence) - regardless of that they were received over five years a go. Fortunately I still had copies of the will etc.

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce

Exodi wrote: »

You could do matched betting from your main bank account if you really wanted. If the bank only asks to see 3 months bank statements and you haven't done matched betting in 3 months then there's really no issue. I personally don't understand what the risk is that you speak of (unless they ask for more than 3 months) but I know people have a knee jerk reaction when 'gambling' and 'mortgage' are put in the same sentence.

Assuming you're a first time buyer, do you currently deposit into a Help To Buy ISA?

Yeah my concerns are in effect a knee-jerk reaction along the lines of "They'll see a gambling transaction so automatically refuse me." I've got a good credit history and would only be looking at a mortgage loan less than double my partner and I's combined salary, so hopefully that's not the case.

Another concern was if multiple credit checks from bookies showed up on my account when the bank had a look, again that's hypothetical in my mind.

Got a HTB ISA so that will also help with an extra couple of grand.

Thanks again

Exodi

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce wrote: »

Great, thanks a lot.

Alongside my partner's deposit it would only have been some extra "bonus" deposit anyway, so I might wait until we have the home then start then as a side income.

Just out of curiosity - how many hours graft does it take to get £1k a month? I had envisaged a few hours a week to return 200 or so.

Cheers

I'll be honest, I have tutored around 15 people and everyone seems to start with the same mindset as you've just portrayed: you envisaged a few hours to return £200? I'm not sure why people have their expectations so high? This isn't a get rich quick scheme. Most people will take home £10 an hour from work but expect £70 an hour from something they've never done?

When people start, they may make about £20-£30+ an hour depending on how much they start with, the welcome offers at the time and how quickly they pick it up (which don't forget is better than what most people earn at work!)

I was (again I've stopped because I'm currently a few weeks away from completing on my house) putting in around 1-2 hours per day (including weekends) as part of my routine to get around £1,000 a month. I have had a few nice extra bonuses in a month (£1400 and £720 being my largest).

Exodi

nyermen wrote: »

my conveyancer asked to see the "evidence of the source" of my main deposit funds (they were from inheritence) - regardless of that they were received over five years ago.

Which would be the case if you had £XX,XXX+ sitting in your bank account that couldn't have been reasonably accrued from saving.

BoiledBreadTomatoSauce wrote: »

Another concern was if multiple credit checks from bookies showed up on my account when the bank had a look, again that's hypothetical in my mind.

Bookmakers perform soft credit checks so don't 'show up on your account' for anyone other than you.