Mortgage broker - ask me anything

silvercar

Floydy2be said:

Would you recommend an offset mortgage? What would the ££savings threshold be for recommending one compared to a regular fixed rate mortgage with a slightly lower interest rate? 20k 50k 100k? 

From personal experience, we’ve had one for 22 years and appreciate the flexibility it gives. We are now fully offset, later in the year we will take a chunk out and replenish over time. It’s a very cost effective way of taking funds when you need. Particularly useful if part of your income comes through bonuses at irregular times.

muchembe

YBS give a schedule of early repayment charges reducing from 5% to 1% over the term of their five year fixed rate offset. However, they then say this on repayments: "Overpayments (monthly or lump sum) up to a total of 99.90% of the outstanding loan per year are allowed without charge. Any amount repaid over the 99.90% limit will incur an Early Repayment Charge. " The charge would be based on the original borrowed amount.
Does this effectively mean we could pay off say 99% of our remaining loan at any point without a repayment charge, as long as we keep the last 1% there? It seems too good to be true.
I'm wondering if someone can help explain this please? I'd ask my own broker but they seem to be against the offset idea for some reason. I rang YBS but the two people I spoke to didn't know. They said I'd get more detail on application!

Jjmbrown1

Hi,

I didn't realise cash advances impacted credit score and I was doing this very frequently (long story, never missed a payment ever). I stopped doing this at the end of November but I've logged in to my Equifax report and noticed there are 19 cash advances in the last 3 months declared. This number will drop to 0 in a months time, but I'm concerned about if lenders can see this history (and the number will be a lot higher than 19 looking back 6 months or so).

In a months time when the number drops to 0, am I fine to apply for a mortgage at this point? Is there anything else I need to do?

K_S

Jjmbrown1 said:

Hi,

I didn't realise cash advances impacted credit score and I was doing this very frequently (long story, never missed a payment ever). I stopped doing this at the end of November but I've logged in to my Equifax report and noticed there are 19 cash advances in the last 3 months declared. This number will drop to 0 in a months time, but I'm concerned about if lenders can see this history (and the number will be a lot higher than 19 looking back 6 months or so).

In a months time when the number drops to 0, am I fine to apply for a mortgage at this point? Is there anything else I need to do?

@jjmbrown1 It’s hard to say what impact it may/may not have on your chances as that depends on the rest of the background, what you require mortgage wise, the lender, etc. You can ignore the ‘credit score’ shown by the credit bureau as that doesn’t matter to the lender, they’ll go by what is actually in the report and your specific application.

For example, if what you want is a low LTV low LTI like for like remortgage with no background debt, then it’s possible that this might have no impact at all.

Otoh, if you’re looking for a high LTV high LTI FTB purchase mortgage with significant background debt, then this might be an issue.

Jjmbrown1

K_S said:

Jjmbrown1 said:

Hi,

I didn't realise cash advances impacted credit score and I was doing this very frequently (long story, never missed a payment ever). I stopped doing this at the end of November but I've logged in to my Equifax report and noticed there are 19 cash advances in the last 3 months declared. This number will drop to 0 in a months time, but I'm concerned about if lenders can see this history (and the number will be a lot higher than 19 looking back 6 months or so).

In a months time when the number drops to 0, am I fine to apply for a mortgage at this point? Is there anything else I need to do?

@jjmbrown1 It’s hard to say what impact it may/may not have on your chances as that depends on the rest of the background, what you require mortgage wise, the lender, etc. You can ignore the ‘credit score’ shown by the credit bureau as that doesn’t matter to the lender, they’ll go by what is actually in the report and your specific application.

For example, if what you want is a low LTV low LTI like for like remortgage with no background debt, then it’s possible that this might have no impact at all.

Otoh, if you’re looking for a high LTV high LTI FTB purchase mortgage with significant background debt, then this might be an issue.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm worried I've completely ruined my ability to buy a house now for the next 6 years till it drops off, as was doing loads of cash advances! In terms of my credit history, never missed a payment on anything, had a mortgage for 4 years never paid late. I also have no outstanding debt, have a couple of credit cards but utilization is less than 2% as I pay the balances off before the banks even send me a statement. For clarity I'd be likely buying a second property at 90% LTV.

Is it not a case that after 3 months it drops off, and therefore I'd be fine to apply in a months time when the cash advance number drops to 0?  When I've logged into Equifax to check, I can only seem to get a view of last 3 months cash advances, nothing beyond then, so assuming the banks can only see the same thing? (Unless I'm looking in the wrong place) 

K_S

Jjmbrown1 said:

K_S said:

Jjmbrown1 said:

Hi,

I didn't realise cash advances impacted credit score and I was doing this very frequently (long story, never missed a payment ever). I stopped doing this at the end of November but I've logged in to my Equifax report and noticed there are 19 cash advances in the last 3 months declared. This number will drop to 0 in a months time, but I'm concerned about if lenders can see this history (and the number will be a lot higher than 19 looking back 6 months or so).

In a months time when the number drops to 0, am I fine to apply for a mortgage at this point? Is there anything else I need to do?

@jjmbrown1 It’s hard to say what impact it may/may not have on your chances as that depends on the rest of the background, what you require mortgage wise, the lender, etc. You can ignore the ‘credit score’ shown by the credit bureau as that doesn’t matter to the lender, they’ll go by what is actually in the report and your specific application.

For example, if what you want is a low LTV low LTI like for like remortgage with no background debt, then it’s possible that this might have no impact at all.

Otoh, if you’re looking for a high LTV high LTI FTB purchase mortgage with significant background debt, then this might be an issue.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm worried I've completely ruined my ability to buy a house now for the next 6 years till it drops off, as was doing loads of cash advances! In terms of my credit history, never missed a payment on anything, had a mortgage for 4 years never paid late. I also have no outstanding debt, have a couple of credit cards but utilization is less than 2% as I pay the balances off before the banks even send me a statement. For clarity I'd be likely buying a second property at 90% LTV.

Is it not a case that after 3 months it drops off, and therefore I'd be fine to apply in a months time when the cash advance number drops to 0?  When I've logged into Equifax to check, I can only seem to get a view of last 3 months cash advances, nothing beyond then, so assuming the banks can only see the same thing? (Unless I'm looking in the wrong place) 

@jjmbrown1 I wasn't aware that these markers fall off after 3 months. In your place I would get a copy of my statutory credit report from Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and check. What you can see on those reports is most of what the lender sees as well. 

In any case, even if the markers stay alive for 6 years, on their own I highly doubt any impact would be long-lasting for most mainstream lenders.

All the best.

RexItaliae

Is it a good sign if I applied for a mortgage and the only question I was asked 4 working days later was "what is your preferred salutation"?

A bit of context: I'm applying for a mortgage with NatWest, 69.86% LTV, first time buyer, but I'm asking to borrow 4.91 times my annual salary.  77.63% of my deposit is a gift from parents (who signed the gifted deposit form provided saying that they don't expect any of that money back). I did get an Agreement in Principle with them, perfect credit history, I've been resident in the UK only for a year (but they only require 6 months at NatWest). I can see that they performed a hard search on my Equifax report the same day that my broker applied for me, together with a soft search on TransUnion on the same day. Too early to get any info from Experian as the report will only be updated in 3 weeks' time.

K_S

RexItaliae said:

Is it a good sign if I applied for a mortgage and the only question I was asked 4 working days later was "what is your preferred salutation"?

A bit of context: I'm applying for a mortgage with NatWest, 69.86% LTV, first time buyer, but I'm asking to borrow 4.91 times my annual salary.  77.63% of my deposit is a gift from parents (who signed the gifted deposit form provided saying that they don't expect any of that money back). I did get an Agreement in Principle with them, perfect credit history, I've been resident in the UK only for a year (but they only require 6 months at NatWest). I can see that they performed a hard search on my Equifax report the same day that my broker applied for me, together with a soft search on TransUnion on the same day. Too early to get any info from Experian as the report will only be updated in 3 weeks' time.

@RexItaliae You've passed a DIP and your broker will have checked criteria before going with NatWest. At that point, with a clean credit history, with the vast majority of mainstream lenders you're 99% there. With mainstream lenders, the primary aspects they're looking for beyond that point in the applicant is whether you can evidence the income declared in the application and whether there are any undisclosed commitments in the background.

That's a long winded way to say that you're probably fine and I wouldn't read anything positive/negative in the query raised. I hope that makes sense. Good luck and hope you get to offer soon!

Aliliva

I'm here asking again what are now the rates for additional borrowing with NatWest. LTV including the additional borrowing is less than 75%, 2y fixed rates.

I can see on the intemediaries portal that all other rates have dropped since we spoke with the advisor at the bank, and given that we haven't completed yet (it's tied in with a transfer of title that's taking a bit long) we have a bit of time to take advantage of the drop - but I would put us through the process again only if it's more than a 0.1% drop

Thanks!

Nichelette

Think I know the answer to this but worth checking in case. We're with Halifax and did a product transfer which starts today. We're in the 60% bracket and got 4.9%. I was debating whether to do a month on SVR as I've seen Halifax change rates on the 1st but fixed as I didn't know if it would come down enough to be worth it. It looks like they've reduced by a good bit today 🙄. I believe we're now locked in and have no cooling off period etc. Am I correct in my thinking?