FTB nerves

Qetesh83 · 25 May 2018 at 4:17PM

Hi, I'm a total newbie -to the boards and to mortgages in general so please be patient with me.

We got an AIP with Santander (through a mortgage adviser) and have had an offer on a house accepted. We meet with the MA on Wednesday to proceed with the full application and I'm convinced we won't get it so am generally just looking for someone that might be able to reassure me a teeny bit.

My husband thinks I'm being silly as he's sure we'll be fine. I am an anxious person so I knew this would test me and we've not even applied yet _pale_ lol.

Right....
Things I think we're ok on: we have no debts, no car finance, 50k deposit (house is £215k), we're asking for a significantly lower amount than the AIP suggested we could borrow, we both have good credit scores with all 3 main agencies, no defaults/ccjs/corrections etc, good history of regular payments on past debts.

The things that are worrying me: we're a single income family - I'm a stay at home parent to three kids, so there's 5 of us depending on my husbands income. Will they look at that as a risk? He's in the military so has fantastic job security - anyone know if they take things like that into account?
We have a fairly large amount of available credit, eg I have a credit card with a 12k limit (zero balance though). I don't want to start closing/amending accounts before applying for a mortgage in case it reflects badly on my credit file somehow ... but equally I'm worried they'll view it as us having the potential to run up a silly amount of debt and then default on mortgage payments.
And lastly how closely do they examine your day to day spending? We've been really frivolous the last few months (because we're in a better position than we have been in a while and we've enjoyed that). It's not regular commitments, just things like trips away, eating out, day trips and so on.... things that we DON'T need and can cut back on easily but I'm concerned it just doesn't look very good.

Sorry, I know these are all things I can ask the MA on Wednesday but I'm already losing sleep over this. So if anyone could just say 'Dont worry, they don't care how you spend your disposable income' then I'd be very grateful :rotfl:

Thanks

kingstreet · 25 May 2018 at 4:34PM

You have an agreement in principle, so an affordability calculation has been done and as long as the income from payslips matches, that will be fine.

Santander doesn't ask for bank statements so they will have no idea what you've been spending your money on.

TamsinC · 25 May 2018 at 4:35PM

Chill - they don't look THAT deeply - they may ask a few silly questions to query what transactions are but they just want an answer. They are interested in what debts you have, regular monthly outgoings we were questioned on the payment for the cleaner - out of all the things they could choose to ask about it was the £20 a week for her, because it was a regular outgoings to an individual. We are also military (apparently according to our broker (a forces specialist) we are a risk factor though for being military). We've done mortgages before just on one income - its not an issue. The potential of debt is not an issue.

Qetesh83 · 25 May 2018 at 4:55PM

No bank statements at all?! That really would calm my nerves

Thank you both, I'm aware I sound like a neurotic mess - I appreciate you taking the time to reassure me!

thermal2844 · 25 May 2018 at 5:23PM

Don't worry, they only care about things you absolutely couldn't give up. If you've passed affordability (which you will have done given you've entered things correctly into your AIP), and your income matches, then you are good to go!

We went with Halifax and honestly we were a bundle of nerves, and all that worrying was for absolutely nothing. They didn't ask for bank statements either, although we had them prepared just in case.

Qetesh83 · 27 May 2018 at 11:18AM

Thanks thermal2844,

I'm feeling a bit more confident now, but I'm still trying not to get my hopes up. Roll on Wednesday!!! Husband says our MA doesn't want/need us to get any documents ready ... not even payslips. Not sure if that's because he's planning on using the ones we gave him for the AIP even though they're a month or two old now. I always thought you'd need to provide loads of information for a mortgage !!! :question:

Fingers crossed it all goes well and they don't drag it out asking for loads of extra documents at a later date!

thermal2844 · 27 May 2018 at 4:04PM

Well I always think it is better to be over prepared than under prepared.

FTBNow · 27 May 2018 at 4:27PM

You’ll be fine. We just got an offer from Santander with slight adverse credit and lower income.

Qetesh83 · 27 May 2018 at 7:21PM

FTBnow- thank you! That's a big relief to hear ave congratulations

Thermal2844- I think the same so have loads of paperwork ready just in case

enthusiasticsaver · 27 May 2018 at 9:25PM

I don't think you will have a problem. You have a decent deposit and sounds like the affordability will be fine. They don't go into bank statements that closely. Gambling transactions are frowned upon though. I would take recent bank statements and oayslips just in case.

FTBNow · 28 May 2018 at 9:44AM

Qetesh83 wrote: »

FTBnow- thank you! That's a big relief to hear ave congratulations

Thermal2844- I think the same so have loads of paperwork ready just in case

Thank you

. I'm not sure if the fact that me and my partner both bank with them helped, but I suppose a responsible borrower is a responsible borrower however you dress it up. If you haven't got any adverse credit you should be fine.

In terms of bank statements: they just use them to cross-reference whether what you said about necessary outgoings is true (direct debits, debts and so on). They won't be bothered if you currently buy a Starbucks everyday or whatever: I think the assumption is that everyone lives to their means when a mortgage comes along.

FTB nerves

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