Declined For A Mortgage

[confusedpickle]

Hi
Hoping someone can pass on some advise, we were declined a mortgage last night due to failing the credit check. Obviously both shocked by this as our credit scores are in the 900s.

We paid for an in depth report through Experian, mine is clear but his is very confusing but what we can see is he has 6 financial associations with his ex wife, he knows absolutely nothing about these and can only think she has forged his signature in the past (something she is highly likely to have done).

So my question is how can we find out what these associations are (it doesn't give any info on the credit report) and also if they are the reason we got declined for a mortgage or something else has caused it?

Any help much appreciated

You can contact Experian and let them know there has been identity theft. They will explain the next steps.

Martin Lewis has detailed articles on his website about this. Or as as previous posters say, contact Experian

@DuchyDuke thank you for replying.
Can we say it's identity theft though without being able to prove it? will they just take our word for it that we don't know what they relate to and remove the associations?

Did they never have a joint bank account or a joint mortgage or anything like that?

Your dh can apply to be "disassociated" with his ex.

If credit scores are in the 900's then it clearly hasn't affected his score.

Good luck :)

Did you go into your overdraft at any point in the last year or so? Even with amazing credit scores that will still stop you from getting a mortgage. Agree with PP, check the moneysavingexpert website, they have fantastic info on this.

Also please be aware there is more than 1 credit agency. Your score might be very high with Experian but not with the others (which the bank might have used instead). Also there are ways to get your credit report for free - eg. noddle.co.uk, moneysavingexpert credit club, and clearscore.com - these are 3 free services that each cover a different agency, so you can check your score for all 3 agencies.

Yes you can. If she used his identity fraudulently after they seperated it is still identity theft. The burden of proof is on the lender.

Just because the first lender won't give you a mortgage, just try another. We went through a broker for ours and they did a few 'soft searches' to find someone who would accept us.

I think if you speak to the credit checker people they should advise you on what steps to take to get this information looked at.

Also all agencies use a different criteria so a 900 with one company may be a lower score with your potential lender, dependent upon various different things.

It may well be affordability too- lenders decisions are not just based on credit ratings. Has your broker talked you through the process in detail?

@NotDavidTennant yes they used to have a mortgage but this is showing on the report as closed and zero balance. Never had a joint bank account. So unless it doesnt matter if the association is settled or not it still shows?

@Zoflorabore thank you x

@ISeeTheLight thank you for your reply, we did Clearscore and Experian the free checks but doesnt appear you can 'upgrade' on clearscore so thats why we did Experian / Credit Expert which shows the financial association. Oddly clearscore is showing 1 item that experian isnt? Although this is not a debt and it shows all payments are up to date.

Neither of us have been in our overdraft and we don't have credit cards so we can only assume it's because he is associated to her financially 6 times and her score would be appalling that it has caused us an issue.

@DuchyDuke thank you

@StillNoClue the mortgage person advised us last night not to try with any other lenders until score is resolved as this would impact heavily on our score, so that makes us think she could see what the issue was and knows it's a big deal but not allowed to tell us?

@Outnumbered99 we didn't go through a broker we just went straight through the bank. The mortgage advisor said we failed the credit check, she had already been through payslips and deposit etc and carried on to credit check so surely she wouldn't have continued to credit check of she didn't think we could afford it?

My understanding is that even if the mortgage has been paid off you still need to manually remove someone by completing a notice of disassociation.

Talk to a whole of market broker and take it from there. Can't comment on the bank lady but you will never get a true picture just going to one place and you don't want lots of credit checks run either just going into high street banks.

Although it sounds like it’s the ex just to make you aware the credit scores don’t mean anything to lenders, they use their own scoring system.

Report an error to Experian and ask for removal. Ask them what you need to achieve this- it may not be formal disassociation at this stage. For example I had a missed payment removed simply by asking the creditor (EDF energy) to do so. However they only usually feed data to the credit reference agencies once a month so not a quick fix

Agree with using a whole market broker. For an individual bank it could be literally anything

@Outnumbered99 @Sprinklesinmyelbow thank you i will look into market brokers

You need to sort this DH issue out first before proceeding. Getting turned down again will not help you credit score. I'd check with Experian about getting the links with ex explained

Good luck confusedpickle!

@Sprinklesinmyelbow how do they score if they dont use credit checks?
Will give them a call and see what they need, just annoying it doesnt give us the names of the credit suppliers so we can contact them directly and ask to remove like you did with EDF

I agree it’s best to use an independent financial adviser as they look at the whole market and will get you a better deal.

Contact Experian and find out what you need to do to stop associations. Mine was something simple where bank had left XH on one account by accident.

My Sister had to go through bankruptcy, and it didn't affect her partner at all. He was able to change vehicle, swap loan companies etc. And it was all logged officially that they were financially associated.

If you've already had an in-depth report already, then I'm surprised it doesn't state who the companies, and what the associations, are - Myself and DH have had to check ours recently (due to identity theft) and it's very clear on the reports we received.

Definitely check with all the agencies too, as they could hold different information for various accounts.