Excessive screening requirements

Balooney2000_2

Son is purchasing first home and has a mortgage offer from Bank of Ireland , however they now require a zero balance credit card statement. No screen prints.  He uses his card on a day to day basis for everyday purchases and pays it off. It’s highly unlikely the statement will have a zero balance. Has anyone else experienced this form of request and can they explain why it has been requested - Son is not a historical debtor!  Thanks

dunstonh

however they now require a zero balance credit card statement. No screen prints.

Most won't accept screen prints for mortgages or any other purposes.  

 He uses his card on a day to day basis for everyday purchases and pays it off. It’s highly unlikely the statement will have a zero balance.

Are you sure that has been interpreted correctly.  Usually, lenders look for full repayment each month, which would usually be classed as a nil balance on the application.   Are they looking for statements that show the balance is being paid to zero each month.

For a credit card to have a genuine nil balance, that would need at least 6 weeks of no use.  

kingstreet

If the card is cleared each month in full, I would upload the latest three months statements with a note explaining the card is used only for normal expenses and is repaid in full each month as you can see.

K_S

Balooney2000_2 said:

Son is purchasing first home and has a mortgage offer from Bank of Ireland , however they now require a zero balance credit card statement. No screen prints.  He uses his card on a day to day basis for everyday purchases and pays it off. It’s highly unlikely the statement will have a zero balance. Has anyone else experienced this form of request and can they explain why it has been requested - Son is not a historical debtor!  Thanks

@balooney2000_2 I've had this with another lender and the scenario was that the 'usual' balance of around £1,500 (which was also reflected in the balances shown on the credit report) would reduce the max borrowing materially. Hence the lender insisting on the same.

It used to be that most lenders would ignore cc balances cleared in full monthly but in recent times more lenders are asking that any cc balances shown on the credit report must be input as a commitment on the application, irrespective of whether they are paid off monthly in full or not.

In most cases it doesn't matter either way as monthly spending balances are usually quite small but in high-LTV edge cases where the client needs to maximise borrowing, it can come into play depending on the lender.

Having said that, in these kind of scenarios, often the underwriter is ok to consider alternative evidence - eg the latest issued statement in conjunction with a screenshot or printout of the online banking page showing the transactions from the statement end date to present. Or as Kingstreet suggested above.

So might be worth checking with your broker as to what else might work to avoid having to wait for the next statement to be issued.