Repair the damage

[Deleted User]

They will look better paid/cleared yes.

But obviously still visible of recent.

Nebulous2

I started stoozing, borrowing money I didn't need to save at a higher interest rate than it was costing me, about 2 years ago. I had no expectation of applying for credit. About 6 months in, with over £30k in debt I decided to buy a second home. I went to Nationwide literally, in my lunch break, and explained what I wanted to do.

The person I saw told me that to borrow what I needed my credit card debt would have to be below £10k. He also told me if I applied while it was still showing on my credit file there would be an automatic decline and I would have to appeal showing proof it was paid off.

I paid it down, waited until the CRAs showed the reduced balance, applied and the mortgage sailed through. So my experience was it didn't matter. They weren't interested in the reason for the debt, only that it was repaid.

I had a lot of other factors going for me. My main home was paid, stable employment, long-term ER at the same address, very good credit history, so I certainly wasn't pushing my limits for a mortgage.