I fucked up, didn't I? Mortgage Application

[Ifuckedup2023]

So we're applying for a mortgage at the moment and our appointment will be on April 29th to do the proper application.

I have a very good credit score of 999 on Experian. I made a terrible mistake and I have just noticed now.

A payment of 36 pounds to Virgin Media has bounced back at the end of the month. I've just paid them over the phone.

I just checked my experian account and my credit score is still 999.

I attached a screenshot. My virgin media account shows as in good standing, but the balance shows as 36 pounds.

Will this destroy my mortgage application?

I feel absolutely awful for being so stupid, because I managed my bills responsibly for years and shortly before I destroy everything :(

They are only looking for defaults, ccjs Iva's etc

You need to look at the page with the six year history in, if that's all green your good. Don't forget there are others credit ref agencies too are they all so good?

I had a payment dispute with virgin a few years back when we cancelled the contract. I was told a payment has to be over 6 weeks late before a credit file is marked as a late payment, so you probably won’t even get a mark at all on your file.

What are the others? I cannot get onto Experian, it repeatedly tells me they can’t find any details I exist!

I can only got back three years and it is all green.

I am not sure about other credit agencies, I only use Experian

I hope you're right and this still applies 😕

You need to check the others. Not all lenders use Experian. In fact none of the places I have credit with do.

Clear Score
Credit Karma

Then you'll have checked TransUnion and Equifax I believe.

Experian in my experience is just better marketed than the others

They're not just looking at your score - and it doesn't have to be a perfect 999 as most people wouldn't get a mortgage if that was the case! They are looking at if you are making regular payments and a one off £36 a couple of weeks late is unlikely to make a difference unless it looks like your salary has disappeared and your debts have got bigger in which case something is going wrong in your (financial) life. There are always timing differences between payments and records being updated.

Whilst agreeing it is good to check the others I have a just got an average score and have been slowly building it back up, I also missed a payment but called as soon as I realised and paid and it hasn't marked my credit rating so it does appear to have leeway built in.

ignore the score, it means NOTHING (source: am debt advisor).

it is the CONTENT they will be looking at - CCJs, defaults, arrangements to pay, insolvencies.

I have just checked clearscore and it is 1000 out of 1000 for me

It certainly does mean something. It is harder to get credit with a lower score and the cost of credit is higher.

How late were you? I was 2 weeks and 5 days late 😢

I am a mortgage broker

if it is a one off then with an explanation I wouldn't worry

if you are a repeat offender (missing direct debits and then paying them a few days late and this is a pattern on the last 3 months bank statements) it can be declined due to 'account not being in good standing' even if not showing on credit reports.

had a client recently declined for this - we have placed elsewhere and in her case she had set up a standing order for 500 a week into savings but this kept leaving her short in the current account - she had the money just not in the right place. We appealed on this basis and lost as their reasoning is poor money management

It'll be fine.

still the score means nothing
my clear score is 840 out of 1000 - ive had no late payments, ccj's etc, it dropped 160 points once my mortgage was paid off as before it was 1000/1000

We refinanced recently. We have a MASSIVE mortgage.
Had to provide 6 months of bank statements to new bank.
There were 6 occasions when payments bounced in that time as we failed to put enough money in the account they come out of. They were all paid within days. I was sure we'd be rejected.
Had no impact on the refinance!

TallulahBetty is right, it honestly means nothing. The 'score' ie 800 out of 999 means nothing, it's just an arbitrary number and the number/score that they give you varies between agencies. It really is the content that they care about.

But if you have bad content, e.g. Regular late payments and high credit card utilisation, your score will be lower.

So I do think the score means something.

Hello,
Mortgage broker here - we don't look at scores, actually they don't really mean anything and is more of an indicitor for YOU on how well you are handling credit.

We look for adverse credit, insolvency (bankruptcy, IVAs, DRO) and also CCJs, defaults etc.

£36 is nothing, and you'll be fine.

What @VariantHela said. DH had a small and historic loan default but because it wasn’t recent and not for very much it made no difference. Didn’t even affect the rate we were offered.

I wouldn't have thought it would matter. In the early days of online banking I made an error with Barclaycard payments and was paying to the wrong account. It was only small amounts and I didn't notice for about three months that no payments had gone to my Barclaycard account. The bank sorted it out and the payments went into the right account in the end, phew. About a year later I applied for a mortgage and it didn't seem to affect anything.

I have 100% perfect credit history with Experian and Equifax.

But I struggled to get a mortgage because I DON'T have a credit card/loan/other debts.

It isn't about what your score is, it's how you manage your finances.

Mortgage broker here too - you'll be fine.

And to reiterate, the score means nothing to a lender, they care about the conduct on the report

Don't worry. It'll be fine :)