Anyone got a mortgage recently?

[kookiekookie]

We're trying to get a mortgage. We've both got great credit, never go into our over draft etc..

The only thing I'm worried about is that in summer I took my kids on loads of days out and I've done a lot of shopping simply because I had the money and didn't know when we'd sell the house --- I wasn't going to live like a pauper just to look good on paper as we weren't to know when we'd sell the house.

My question is twofold: will they see that the summer holiday spending on days out was in isolation? I will say that I will not go shopping for clothes etc as much because I need to accommodate the rise in mortgage payment.

I'm still able to put money into a savimgs account.

Will I be ok?

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I'm sure you'll be fine, I had exactly the same worries and we got what we needed & could have had more. The most important thing def seems to be good credit. We had a lot of debt but always made payments so our credit rating was good. They only seemed to take into about the regular 'bills' we had to pay and income rather than day to day spending. I'd watched a programme by a popular money saving expert & thought we didn't have a cat in hells chance of getting a new mortgage, but in fact it was no prob at all.

Good luck

*account not about!

Thanks browney. I'm going with London & country brokers so hopefully they'll find someone who will want to lend to us. Would you mind telling me which lender you got in the end? Don't worry if not!

We went with Natwest for the mortgage. The broker we used was from mortgage matters direct. She was great, we found it all a fairly straightforward process. Great timing as well with interest rates being so low!

We had to apply for our mortgage earlier then planned and it ended up being Decembers bank statements we had to submit. Nightmare as it was just full of large food shops and Christmas present shopping. We were in our overdraft etc! It was fine, they didn't query it! They just looked at our normal direct debits.

I did a similar thing - sold my house up north, decided I couldn't afford to buy one in london, had a massive spend up on holidays and other stuff... Then realised I could buy in london.

Also Natwest with Mortgage Matters.

Natwest reduced the amount they were willing to lend by £10k after they reviewed my actual bank statements so I assume my high spend month (the ones j see review) did impact affordability

The summer holiday spending is discretionary, you did it because you could, as opposed to essential expenditure which is the regular commitments, utility bills, council tax, etc. The lenders know that you can cut back on the discretionary spends so they won't be particularly interested in those.

Your loan to value and any rise in the mortgage payment (new payment vs current) may impact any need to discuss a sort term spendathon. The higher the LTV the stricter they are. Hopefully you didn't go overdrawn because of it. However L&C are brilliant and v experienced and will only submit an application to a mortgage company if they felt you had a good chance of being accepted. They will know each lenders peculiarities.

It's not possible to give you a definite answer as it depends on circumstances and the lender.

We didn't even have to submit bank statement last year as our loan to earning ratio was well within the lenders comfort zone so they weren't bothered what we spend our disposable income on.

If you are maxing your affordability and you have a strict lender, frivolous spending, even if discretionary, could well be a deal breaker.

A good broker should be able to look at your circumstances and advise you accordingly.