Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Original poster

Mortgage credit check declined - can anyone help? :(

26 replies

MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 15:51

We have just accepted an offer on our house and I called my bank today to ask the mortgage advisor about porting my mortgage and k creasing the loan. We went through all the affordability checks which were fine and we would like to borrow around £50k under what they'll lend us.

I checked both mine and dh's credit situation on noddle last night and all looked good.

She went off to do the credit check for a decision in principle and it declined. She said she didn't know the reason but to check our experian reports.

I've done this. Dh's is "excellent" and he has a score of 996 but he has 1 "negative" which is a late payment on his credit card in the last 6 months.

Mine is totally wrong! It has me down as living at my old address from 4 years ago, as not being on the electoral role at my address (which is because I'm on the electoral role at the address I actually live at) and none of my current loans or credit cards show on the file. It has my score as 760 and "fair".

I called them and they said any experian search would be done on the information in my credit expert account and as I've not updated that in years it has not linked anything to my new details. He said it should update over night now I've changed it.

Sorry this is long.

Do we have any chance of appealing the decline decision? I don't know if the decline was because of my wrong details or dh's 1 late payment (on a credit card with a balance of £200), not missed but late (idiot that he is).

Does anyone have any thoughts? Any help very gratefully received.

OP posts:
Leigh1980 · 10/05/2016 15:53

As far as I know you can only retry in 6 months time. But maybe someone knows a loophole around this.

Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 15:58

Oh shit, was hoping I could appeal or something... Thanks for your reply.

OP posts:
OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 15:58

Of course you can appeal it!
Do so with your bank tomorrow !

It might also be worth checking that there aren't any old bills or accounts (old mobile contracts etc) still registered to you at your old address as this could be adding to confusion even if nil balance

Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 16:01

Oh thank you oneepisode.

I've been through the olds stuff and can't find anything at all outstanding. I'm positive I wouldn't have anything outstanding. I'm hoping to god that it was declined as my address doesn't match to my application and the electoral role issue and the crap score, if so, surely an appeal would consider that. I'm worried though that it's not that and it's dh's late payment or both issues, I assume they wouldn't accept an appeal for that? I'm bloody raging at him.

OP posts:
OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 16:02

If they didn't tell you how you just search on something like " "x bank name" appeal mortgage decline". They all have an appeal route

Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 16:03

I'm also confused because I last logged in to that credit expert account in August 2012 so when we first applied for the current mortgage we have 15 months ago why was this not a problem then? Confused so maybe it is the late payment issue. Aargh.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 16:04

Thanks one episode

OP posts:
BayLeaves · 10/05/2016 16:07

The trouble is with this system is that a decline is not a true decline. It's just the max they'll offer you is less than what you need. So frustrating. Credit agencies suck too, mine always seems to be riddled with these sort of errors which are difficult and slow to get rectified, you get penalised unfairly for it through no fault of your own.

If it's any consolation, my FIL once 'failed' a credit check to get an normal, perfectly affordable mobile phone contract once. Depsite earning about £100k a year, no debts, never needed credit cards, no mortgage on the house etc. In fact, that was the problem, he was so well-off he'd never needed credit in his life, so when it came to having a credit check done it comes back as a poor rating as they've got no data to base it on.

It just goes to show credit checks are a really shitty measure of how well someone can reliably pay a monthly direct debit!

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 16:21

You shouldn't have to give a grounds for appeal! You just appeal, then the bank's checking process kicks in which is often manual so might not be that quick. But should give you an answer..

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 16:24

BayLeaves, my millionaire former boss had the exact same problem. He owned our company in the UK and it's US parent. But no regular credit footprint in the uk so when he moved here he found it awkward!
I think the OPs case is easier though.,

Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 16:55

thanks so much for the messages. I've told the mortgage advisor at the bank about what I've found and we've decided to wait for experian to update then do the check again. I know that that isn't good in itself running 2 checks but I've not applied for anything else recently so hopefully not too much of an impact.

OP posts:
Comeonmommy · 10/05/2016 17:29

1 late payment in a cc with a balance of £200 isn't going to stop your application. I would be getting your record updated and ask the bank to try again. Good luck!

Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 19:24

Thank you comeonmummy I really hope so!

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsBungle · 10/05/2016 22:47

Well I've checked dh's file more closely and in February he was 2 months behind with the credit card payment, on a balance of £200. Honestly, he could have just paid it off HmmSad

Has anyone else been in this situation and either successfully appealed or gone on to get a mortgage?

Although he has these late payments his experian score is still "excellent". I'm so worried we won't be able to move now Sad

OP posts:
Bearbehind · 10/05/2016 23:08

Being 2 months behind on a card payment just 2 months ago is really not going to look good.

Different lenders take different views on these things so it's not to say it's impossible but the lender you are trying with may not overturn their decision.

Looking at it from their point of view- if he failed to pay a bill of just £200 in 2 consecutive months very recently why would they want to lend a huge sum?

If you can't get the decision changed find a good whole of market broker to help you try again with a more flexible lender.

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 23:11

Don't worry, excellent is, well, excellent. Grin

Bearbehind · 10/05/2016 23:16

Don't worry, excellent is, well, excellent.

Hmm

Experian don't lend money so their opinion of 'excellent' counts for nothing.

The lender has already declined this application so they don't think its 'excellent'

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 23:16

The bill was £200 so the min payment was even less.
Lenders look at ability to pay (dh had the money to pay in full) and willingness to pay (evidenced by the fact he did).
If you have statements to show he did pay it off, and anything to show some correspondence about setting up direct debits etc that might help with an appeal to a human., but the computer will go on his score, which is excellent, because it's based on his credit history as a whole, not just forgetting one bill for a short while..

scribblegirl · 10/05/2016 23:19

I would seriously advise a broker. We had our first mortgage declined and went to London and Country who took their knowledge of the market to get us with a lender who didn't care about my negative credit (which frustratingly was a single AIP for one month on a student credit card 5 years ago!)

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 23:24

Bear, Quite right, and I don't know the name of the lender so I don't know if they are using a proprietary score card or an Experian one.

The lender is also entitled to use their own behavioural scorecard (on the way the customer has managed the accounts with them.) However, the only explanation for decline the op has been given was to check the Experian file. And Dh's score is excellent, and the Ops is fair. Fair seems to be based on an inaccurate address which is now fixed, so ?

Bearbehind · 10/05/2016 23:30

one I'm a bit baffled by your reliance on Experian's opinion of 'fair' and 'excellent'

Their score is completely meaningless.

It's the data they hold which is important and how that fits with each lenders criteria.

Lenders are not obliged to disclose the specific reason for a decline - it is simply that the applicants credit history doesn't match their lending criteria.

The address issue might solve the problem but it might not and given its not the only adverse factor, it can't be confirmed as the reason for the decline at this stage.

OneEpisode · 10/05/2016 23:40

Hi Bear, OK.
I used to do this a lot. Very few suppliers of Uk credit scorecards. Equifax sell scorecards. Experian sell scorecards. Very, very few UK lenders make their own scorecards now.

So the lender uses their own data, and a bureau data, and runs it through a scorecard.

The op has been recommended to check Experian. This indicated the bureau being used by this lender was Experian. I assumed the lender had also purchased the Experian scorecard for their automated lending system. It's possible they have their own but really really not very likely for a Uk lender.
The lender will also apply their own affordability and loan to value criteria. The op said they passed the affordability.
So assuming the op is in the UK, the score she's been told to check is the score...

notapizzaeater · 10/05/2016 23:46

I'd think about going to a broker and getting them to trawl the market

Original poster
MrsBungle · 11/05/2016 05:23

Thanks everyone. The lender is Santander. We have our mortgage and joint current account with them and I have a credit card with them. We've never been in our overdraft. Never had account charges of any kind.

I'm well aware the 2 missed payments looks awful. I could bloody kill Dh. The balance was £200 the amount due was stupidly low, he could well afford to pay it. He set up a direct debit in March so the problem won't happen again.

I'm not sure whether to appeal to a human at our bank or cut our losses and go to a broker (I did e mail one last night and so hope they'll call today).

And now of course I went to view a house last night which we love and want to offer on and can't Sad

OP posts:
Bearbehind · 11/05/2016 07:40

There's no harm in asking the question OP.

I have heard Santander are pretty tough on recent issues so late payments in 2 out of the last 3 months on DH's credit report might still be enough for them to continue to decline but if it is just your address then you might be ok.

If not, at least you know about the gremlins now so a broker can look for a lender who is more lenient with issues like you have.

Swipe left for the next trending thread