First time buyers with adverse credit

Smith96

Hello!

Myself and my partner are currently trying to get a mortgage with little luck! My partner has a default from 4-5 years ago, worth £11 due to switching phone contracts and not realising he had an outstanding amount. He paid it around 4 moths after it was due, resulting in the default. Other than that he has never missed a payment on anything. I have no adverse history but do have under £1000 credit card debt that I pay off each month but will be paying the majority of next month. His score is in the low 600 and mine is 800.

Nationwide have declined our agreement in principle so we’re feeling pretty stuck in what to do next. 

Can anyone recommend the best steps for us to take? Whether we should see a specialist broker? Or just give up now? 😫

thank you! 

RelievedSheff

Find a good broker. There will certainly be a company out there who will give you a mortgage.

Cscott139

speak to a broker, the above seems fairly straight forward based on the limited info provided.

ACG

Nationwide declined you for an £11 default 4+ years ago? 
Have you looked at your credit report(s)? 

I would have expected that to go through all day long with most lenders. There may be something else (in addition) causing the problem - to put it in to context we have cases with 2-3 defaults go through on the high street all day long. Is it a 95% mortgage with a gifted deposit? 

haras_n0sirrah

There has to be more on the report than that. Even if nationwide said no there is more than 1 lender although I certainly wouldn't class that as adverse 

Smith96

ACG said:

Nationwide declined you for an £11 default 4+ years ago? 
Have you looked at your credit report(s)? 

I would have expected that to go through all day long with most lenders. There may be something else (in addition) causing the problem - to put it in to context we have cases with 2-3 defaults go through on the high street all day long. Is it a 95% mortgage with a gifted deposit? 

Yeah we’ve both looked at our full credit report and that is the only remotely adverse thing. No other missed payments or anything like that. He got a credit card 6 months ago and spent a couple of hundred and has been paying monthly to try to build credit. That’s only got £50 or so left to pay off. 

It’s 95% yes but not a gifted deposit. 

MovingForwards

@Smith96 have you looked at all three reports (Clearscore, MSE credit club and credit karma)?

Gone through every section, checked every closed account and open accounts, checked they have you down on the electoral roll, made sure all the accounts showing are yours etc.

ACG

It might be worth speaking to a broker, I reckon this can be placed at 95% all day long at normal rates. 

[Deleted User]

I had a similar case with a £20 phone default 5 years old.    Just couldn't get it to pass with any of the usual suspects at 95%,   managed to get a few of them to tell me the reason for decline and it was just down to an overall low scoring on their internal system.  Not enough data to override the tiny default from so long ago.   
I didnt think it was enough to warrant going off the high street and ended up getting it placed with hsbc who are usually massively anti adverse but because they banked with them they had enough internal data to boost the scoring just enough to scrape through. 

Your bank might be worth a try if you have good account conduct but speak to a broker first to make sure there is nothing else throwing it out that you might not realise