Declined a mortgage due to really bad credit... scores 991 and 999??

boromanc89

Hi all,
We are remortgaging our flat through a broker and we have been informed by the broker that our mortgage application with HSBC has been declined due to problems with 'really bad credit'. In response to this, we checked our Experian credit reports and our scores are 991 and 999. We checked the full reports with no discrepancies, the only advice to increase the score from 991 was to change from the private to the public electoral roll.

Broker went back to HSBC and they still refuse as our credit check through them was really bad.
Apparently they don't use Experian but Callcredit.

Should we run our details through another agencies?? We will be getting marks against our score in the process but is a full Experian report not enough?

Ben8282

Changing from private to public electoral roll will not be reflected on your credit reports. If you are on the ER the entry will be shown regardless of if it is private or public. This is nonsense advice.

HSBC don't use callcredit because they are now called Trans Union. More nonsense from this broker. Would suggest you check your credit files with Transunion.

Have you considered the possibility that the decline may not be due to the information contiained in your credit files but because you are asking for more money than the lender believes that you can afford considering your incomes and level of debt or some other factor of which you have not made us aware?

Are you sure that HSBC actually told the broker that you have 'really bad credit'. Very unprofessional if they did and I simply don't believe that they would have revealed this information to a third party (or even to you for that matter), even if true. This is highly unusual and I suggest that this broker has misinformed you/. It is more likely that they said that they had declined the application and that information obtained from Trans Union had been a factor in that decision. Furthermore, any competent broker would have had you check your credit files and gone over them with you before making an application. Your post implies that neither you nor your broker actually checked any credit files prior to this application to HSBC which is to be honest very odd indeed. I would seriously question the competence of this broker.

I would add that credit scores are a meaningless marketing tool used by the CRA's and will not have been seen by HSBC who would have scored you themselves based on the totality of information provided to them. This would have included the information on your credit files but also information unknown to TransUnion such as salary, time in current employment, affordability and so on.

A final thought. If your credit is as excellent as you believe why are you using/paying a broker?

[Deleted User]

Your scores play no part in lending decisions.

If you broker is telling you to increase the scores then you need a better broker.

CallCredit are now called TransUnion - they used to be a CRA until TransUnion took them over.

boo_star

As I understand it HSBC are quite picky.

Perhaps time to find a better broker.

boromanc89

Indeed, they are getting binned off.

We definitely aren’t borrowing out of our means, there’s £90k left on our mortgage which is our annual income before tax. On other debt we have is my student loan. We have overdrafts set on our accounts but we never used them.

We rented out our flat last year (mortgage provider approved it) and I’m wondering if the tenants perhaps haven’t changed all their addresses as we still get their post. Could that have an effect? We were abroad working (with no credit only a current account for our wages).

[Deleted User]

Credit files belong to people, not addresses, so your tenants aren't a factor.

It just sounds as if you have a very thin credit file.

Ben8282

boromanc89 wrote: »

We were abroad working (with no credit only a current account for our wages).

So you have no credit other than a current account and a mortgare? No credit cards. This could well explain the thin credit file but then raises questions as to how you got the original mortgage. This could also explain the decline due to the fact that this would imply that you have both been in your current employment in the UK for a very short time
I always find it odd when higher earners who presumably are paid monthly refer to their 'wages'.
I note you have avoided addressing the various points previously raised concerning the incompetence of the broker, why you are using a broker and the improbability of HSBC staff saying what they allegedly did. .

boromanc89

We didn't open any credit cards abroad, no.

We have a joint UK credit card which is paid off in full each month.
The original mortgage is only in my husbands name as he bought the flat. This is before we were married. We have been employed in the UK since 2013 and remained tax resident in the UK during our year working abroad.

@Ben8282 Wages, not sure what's wrong with that term..... We are both doctors and worked abroad in the same occupation, if your comment is to cast aspersions on what we were doing abroad?

We are using a broker as we thought we'd get better rates and we had one recommended by our IFA. The mortgage on the flat was originally arranged direct with the bank.


I'm not avoiding addressing anything, I wrote this morning's comment on my phone while walking down the corridor at work. I really don't have anything to hide.

Ben8282

I mean that doctors and other salaried individuals rarely use the term 'wages'.
There is no such thing as a joint credit card. One of you has an additional card on the other's account which will be reported only on one of your credit reports. Very strange that you don't have individual cards or more cards.
If one of you has a credit card don't understand why you said that you had no credit apart from current accounts and the mortgage.
You were obviously referred to an incompetent broker.
I never implied that you opened credit card accounts abroad and, even if you had, they would not be shown on UK credit reports and would therefore be irrelevant to the situation.

Have you actually checked your TransUnion credit files yet?

boromanc89

When I said no credit, I was specifically referring to my bank accounts abroad.

To be honest, it doesn't matter. I'll find it out somewhere else.

Ben8282

boromanc89 wrote: »

When I said no credit, I was specifically referring to my bank accounts abroad.

.

What on earth have your bank accounts abroad got to do with anything? They won't be reported on your UK credit files either.

boromanc89 wrote: »

Should we run our details through another agencies?? We will be getting marks against our score in the process but is a full Experian report not enough?

Well yes TransUnion obviously as they are the CRA that the broker said HSBC used. No you won't be 'getting marks against your score' by checking your credit files. Don't know what sort of marks you imagine you will get or why you should think this. And no, a full Experian report is not enough because as you said yourself HSBC didn't use Experian.