Showing all bank accounts for a mortgage application

Dannydee333

I have been told by many that it's not necessary to show all current accounts for your mortgage application. Just your main account where your salary gets paid into, and all your direct debits etc come out of.

In response to this, I have spent the whole year cleaning up my main account. I am about to make a mortgage application and my broker has said has said that in advance of our meeting, I should send them bank statements of all accounts. I now feel like all the effort I put into cleaning my main account would have been for nothing if all accounts were to be looked at.

I do have two other current accounts, neither of which has any connection to my salary, outgoings, or my deposit. One of them has about 4/5k in as an emergency fund (that I just built up over the years), but I do spend from it regularly and there would be things on there that might be looked at negatively, such as regular national lottery payments and some other mild gambling payments (I do not have a problem or anything, I dabble a little now and again to try my luck). And occasional Amazon purchases and things like that. The third current account does nothing except hold a couple of hundred pounds to pay for my yearly domain name subscription for a non-business hobby website I keep.

I am aware that showing an extra few thousand pounds in rainy-day funds could possibly even help an application, but I worry that the kind of purchases made on that account would undo all the effort I put into cleaning up my main account. And I would much prefer to simply be assessed on my main account, salary, and deposit as they are more than enough to prove my affordability and trustworthiness.

Is it reasonable to say to my broker, that I am happy to leave my other two accounts out of it? What should I do? Is there even an issue here?

housebuyer143

A broker will ask for different things to a lender. They want to know all your info to make sure they apply to the most appropriate lender and all lenders have different requirements for proofs, so a good broker wants it all upfront so they can just send what is needed. 
The broker is working in your interests, so send them everything they want so they can apply to the most suitable lender for you. They are not trying to catch you out. 

BlueVeranda

For my last mortgage application I had to provide a full statement of the account that my salary is paid into and detail any direct debits or recurring payments (regardless of which account they are paid from). I have one other savings account and one shared account and for these they just asked approximate balance. They didn't care about impulse purchases from Amazon (within reason).

However, we went direct to our preferred lender and your broker may want to satisfy themselves on different aspects. I would recommend being honest about the accounts existence and ask how much detail they need.

anselld

Lender can see you have other current accounts on your credit file anyway so there is no point hiding them.

Dannydee333

It's my understanding that you need to provide bank statements for any accounts you'll use to qualify for the loan. As I've said, my main account and holding account are more than enough.

Given that I can prove my eligibility with said accounts, anything else just seems like pure nosiness in my opinion.

Dannydee333

housebuyer143 said:

A broker will ask for different things to a lender. They want to know all your info to make sure they apply to the most appropriate lender and all lenders have different requirements for proofs, so a good broker wants it all upfront so they can just send what is needed. 
The broker is working in your interests, so send them everything they want so they can apply to the most suitable lender for you. They are not trying to catch you out. 

That sounds reassuring. Like, if the second account would be negative for me, they might leave it out. It's good to know this.

Perhaps the broker is indeed, not an enemy!

theartfullodger

Applied for a re-mortgage years ago, buy 2 let, asked for account details of the account which would be paying the mortgage: (Fine, no issues): Then 3 weeks later very cross lender throwing toys out of his pram (via broker) wanting to know why my claimed other income (various pensions) did not show up on it and was I a lying fraudulent crook:  (I make no comment).

I had, for years, had one account for landlord-type transactions e.g. incoming rent (so the one given), other banker for various accounts (main, joint, savings etc) my other, main, transactions - stocks, savings, pensions etc.. That, plus broker transposing one character of my home post-code so cross lender assumed I was lying about where I lived.. took IIRC 3 months to sort the mess out.

Just tell them everything, be open & honest. 

Jonboy_1984

Our broker wanted both our bank statement for a single month, just to make sure we hadn’t forgotten to mention any regular financial commitments when running the numbers.

Noneforit999

Unless the gambling is a regular thing and for decent amounts of money, I don't see why you need to be concerned.

My wife bets on some football every now and then, we have a monthly Lotto payment etc. I wouldn't even dream of those things being an issue and they never have been. 

Lenders are looking for things you cannot stop paying that you haven't declared like loans, car finance etc and any transactions which are regular/unusual which may affect your ability to repay the mortgage.

If you had a £500pm payment to a gambling website, this may cause an issue.

If you just spend £20 here and there on gambling, the lender is not going to be concerned.

We have only ever been asked for both our main account details, i.e. the accounts our salaries are paid into. I have a few bank accounts with other direct debits and they have never asked to see them. 

My bank account is fairly boring, salary goes in each month, 8-9 direct debits come out and then a large payment to American Express

Trace60

Dannydee333 said:

It's my understanding that you need to provide bank statements for any accounts you'll use to qualify for the loan. As I've said, my main account and holding account are more than enough.

Given that I can prove my eligibility with said accounts, anything else just seems like pure nosiness in my opinion.

I am only wanting to borrow a small amount,  a remortgage but it's actually an encumbered remortgage so why would they need to see savings accounts too when they see I have money in my current account?

newsgroupmonkey_

I'm sure someone like Kingstreet will pop in to put your mind at ease, but there's nothing startling on these.
Mortgage companies don't care about the odd flutter or playing the lottery. Blimey, none of us would have mortgages!

What they would look for are large daily payments to bookies. And more importantly, payday lenders.

Betting 20 quid on the football isn't going to make someone think you're a compulsive gambler.

Absolutely no way I would have got a mortgage if they cared about how often I go to the pub, or get takeaways or whatever. They're interested to see that you can manage your money and you're not constantly living in your overdraft.

As an aside, in a previous life, I was terrible with money and did live out of an overdraft and still got a 95% mortgage.