Mortgage broker advice - we not willing to take.

peteuk

Our mortgage broker has advised us to be as debt free as possible, but keep our credit cards and run up and pay off around £200 a month. 

We have a credit card each which we are running as advised. 
We have a next account each (mine has £52, wife has £1000)
I have a PayPal credit account (Current balance £255)

We paid off a lot of our debt around Sept/Oct and even more in January.  We don’t want to loose the Next accounts, but I agree wife’s could be lowered.  We have a £30K deposite, and good incomes (£65-£70K pre tax) but have struggled to get a mortgage. 

My credit score (for what its worth) is poor and I know the over use of payday/short term loans has crippled it. 

We had a MIP with Halifax but our initial mortgage request (Aug 221) was rejected.  We were advised to wait until at least one year since last PDL paid off.  So again tried in Feb, again rejected.   We are aiming at trying again in July but with payments of different things my credit score yoyo’s and is now worst then it was in Aug 21. 

We do have a Tax credit overpayment which does not appear on any credit score. Which I am paying off….

I don’t want to slip under the £30K,  I can zero both my PayPal and Next (and in fact remove PayPal credit) easily. Within two months or so we can get wife’s next balance down but the impact would be adding nothing to her savings. 

I know previous problems are now bitting us on the behind, but any advice would be welcomed. 

K_S

@peteuk First off, don't worry too much about the Experian/Clearscore/Credit-Karma credit score, what's important is what is IN the credit reports - missed payments, payday loans, defaults, etc. With a pdl history, hopefully you are looking at both your Experian and Equifax reports as pdl providers don't always report on both.

Is there any reason you are limiting yourself to Halifax? Is your broker of the opinion that you have no options at all based on the current state of your file?

ACG

K_S said:

@peteuk First off, don't worry too much about the Experian/Clearscore/Credit-Karma credit score, what's important is what is IN the credit reports - missed payments, payday loans, defaults, etc. With a pdl history, hopefully you are looking at both your Experian and Equifax reports as pdl providers don't always report on both.

Is there any reason you are limiting yourself to Halifax? Is your broker of the opinion that you have no options at all based on the current state of your file?

The bit in bold is my question also. 

If you do not agree with the advice or are not happy with it, speak to the broker or another broker. 

peteuk

K_S said:

Is there any reason you are limiting yourself to Halifax? Is your broker of the opinion that you have no options at all based on the current state of your file?

Sorry, badly written.  I bank with Halifax and so early in the process I got a MIP through them.  We found a house and was recommended a broker, who has done various search’s.

peteuk

ACG said

Is there any reason you are limiting yourself to Halifax? Is your broker of the opinion that you have no options at all based on the current state of your file?

The bit in bold is my question also. 

If you do not agree with the advice or are not happy with it, speak to the broker or another broker. 

We have taken his advice so far, but to pay off both next accounts we would have to dip into the deposit.  He has also said once paid off then they should be closed.   Totally agree with paying off the outstanding, can happily run it at zero but just reluctant to close them. 

ACG

Thats his advice, talk to him. 
He could be a new broker or have an overly fussy compliance process.