Joint mortgage with differing credit - chances of acceptance?

Silaqui

Hi there
I wondered if anyone had any experience of this, either personally or as someone who knows about mortgages professionally. 

I have a good credit/financial history including a mortgage which is in my sole name.

My husband has a poorer credit history which included some payday loans/bad decisions from around 8 years ago. He's currently got no debt other than a credit builder card which he pays in full each month. He maintains a positive balance on his current account. He recently made a single application for car finance to see how likely acceptance was, was rejected for main dealer finance but acceptedby their other company at 33% (he didn't take out the finance). 

Ideally we'd like to move house and get a mortgage in joint names - we'll need to go and see someone I know but does anyone have experience of how likely it is that we will be accepted?

Thank you

Silaqui

Eta - not looking to apply imminently, likely in the next 2-3 years. 

safvoxi

Hi, it might worth looking at his credit report to understand if there is anything there that led to the rejection.

Bad credit over 8 years ago shouldn't be an issue unless the debts aren't showing as settled?

You should be able to access the credit reports for free online.

scoey8

What safvoxi said. Get him to sign up to checkmyfile for a free trial, it shows experian, equifax and transunion all in the same place so will be easy to see any issues. 

MaryNB

scoey8 said:

What safvoxi said. Get him to sign up to checkmyfile for a free trial, it shows experian, equifax and transunion all in the same place so will be easy to see any issues. 

Or for free long term access
Clearscore for Equifax
MSE Credit Club for Experian
Credit Karma for Transunion

You can also get a full copy of your credit file (usually in pdf form) directly from Equifax/Experian/Transunion - look for statutory credit report on each of their websites. But you just get a copy of it at the time of the request, not ongoing access. I don't know how frequently you can request it. 

Silaqui

Thanks all
He is already with clearscore and mse credit club and everything in there looks up to date, addresses correct, no outstanding 'bad debt' showing as unsettled etc. I'll suggest he looks at credit karma as well though thanks for the heads up! 

His credit score number (I know that's not the be all and end all) is going up but it seems to be going so slowly considering how long he's been 'clean' from the payday loans. It's hard to get credit to build a stronger credit history because he gets rejected from everything!