Refused a mortgage after a soft check

[orlandobb]

My partner and I have been refused a mortgage after a soft check.
I think this is down to my credit history, it was poor but after 18 months of hard work is now excellent.
Does anyone have any advice on what we could do?

We were in similar position like you..my husbands score was very poor but he managed to turn it around in over a year getting rid of all debt and all credit cards..from very poor to 939 at Experian..coz he is the only one working at the moment we had mortgage in principle only on his name through broker with higher interest rate but after we saw a property we liked we went with the broker working at the estate agents and he managed to get us a mortgage with Natwest and we were lucky to buy the house at the end..my advise would be then to get rid of everything which might harm your credit score and once you find a property you like see if the estate agent can pass you over to broker they work with to see what they can do for you..also lots of credit checks done might harm your score too so give it some time until next one..wish you the best of luck x

Yes I went with L and C. They were great. I was even extending my mortgage with some to cover debts.

We had our mortgage with hsbc. We were moving house and wanted about £10,000 more. They offered us less than what our current mortgage was despite us earning more,having a big deposit etc. I had a meltdown, we went to Halifax and they were amazing.
If it's a soft check then try several others.

What Experian say your credit rating and what the banks think of your credit history are two different things. Banks don’t use your credit score, they work out their own score using the same information so will put different priorities on different things. For fussy banks like HSBC even one late payment in the last six years will be enough for them to reject you. Less fussy banks/building societies may have higher limits. A broker will know which lenders have more favourable criteria for you.

Definitely call London and Country

They can get better rates than the banks offer you directly. I'm with Barclays and have been for years, and the rate I was offered by going directly to the branch was 0.1% higher than L&C could get for me

They also have an 'adverse credit' team who specialise in finding mortgages for people with credit issues

even though late payments are not showing on my credit report?

To be honest, I don't get why they wouldn't be showing. Unless they are over 6 years old.

A broker is a great idea. I used one. He looked at the whole credit report and showed me what the banks did be looking for and sorted my mortgage.

Bad credit remains visible for six years. You will need to use a broker, and almost certainly, a specialist broker (I think Zebra is one). DH had an issue in his past, and they were able to help us, although it did mean paying for a broker rather than using a free one (they turned us down as clients saying it would be tricky), and putting a higher percentage deposit down (I think we had to go to 15%). This was all before they became much tighter in lending, but it might still work for you.

High street banks can be fussy, Nationwide refused us but we got one with another bank. You need to see a broker who can advise you on which lender would be best to try and they will do the rest.
Regarding credit history, 18 months isn't long at all. And if it's a joint application they will look at both your scores together, so a poor score on one partner will bring down a high score on the other. The longer you wait the better your chances. For most debt you're talking 4-6 years to be clear. You may get a mortgage before then but it will not usually be a high street one, and may have higher interest rates.