how easy is it to get a loan once you're on mat leave?

[trian]

I might need a loan but I won't know til i'm almost on mat leave, should I get one out now (and risk paying all that blinking interest, and all the faff, when I might not need to) or is it ok to wait until the time?

Due date mid nov.
My mortgage is about £155 a month (just as well, i'm on low pay and single), this is my first child and I have no idea how expensive it is but I've already got quite a bit of the kit donated by friends and family. The loan is not for baby kit.
Many thanks for any advice you can give :-)

Have a good look at the criteria / forms for the loan. It's not quite the same but for my mortgage it was last 3 payslips, so that was fine. So check what they ask, good luck

If loan is not for too much a 0% interest credit card might do the same job - and if you took one out now you wouldn't owe anything if you don't actually need it.
I always look at the MSE website for advice about best rates.

I don't know the answer about a loan but it could be worth asking your mortgage lender for a short payment holiday whilst you're on maternity leave, to give you some spare cash every month. I know some mortgage lenders would consider it for a a few months if you haven't already had a payment holiday.

I work in finance and since the new FCA guidelines have been brought in there's a lot of emphasis in lenders asking outright of you're aware of any upcoming changes to your financial circumstances in the near future that may affect your ability to repay the loan, ie. May leave, retirement, redundancy.
If you say no to this and find in a year's time you're struggling to pay the loan back, lenders/courts (if it gets that far) will be much less sympathetic due to the fact that you've lied.
If you tell the truth and say yes I'm going on mat leave, they will probably need to run some affordability checks to ensure the loan is affordable for you going forward, so be prepared to have to give a breakdown of income and outgoings.
The fact that you say you're on 'low pay' will also affect your ability to obtain a loan, regardless of whether you're on mat leave or not.
If you don't mind me asking, what would the loan be for? As there might be better ways to go about funding whatever it is you need.

thank you very much for all your responces, I've been worrying about this for ages, why didn't I just ask mumsnet in the first place!!!?!

RockerMummy (and anyone else!):
the money is for home renovations as the builder has gone even more over budget than I allowed for. My mortgage company won't let me add a 2nd lot of further lending to my mortgage until Dec, because their credit assessment system is so crap it ignores the fact that I could afford it (see below) and only takes into account the fact that I've had my 1st lot of further lending recently, so I have to wait til Dec to get anymore.

Here's the breakdown:

my mortgage+further lending is less than I thought, £125 p/m
net pay is £1085

The overspend is £5,000 (assuming they don't find anything untoward once they start taking the house apart......)

I have an unused overdraft and credit card (£2,500+£500)

Luckily for me, there are people that would bail me out if I got into problems with the payments, but I really don't want to use that option as it has it's own complications. At the moment I'm thinking of either going back to work for the minimum 3 months once mat leave is over, or not going back at all and paying back the excess.....I really don't want to be under pressure to NOT do what's best for me and my daughter just because of some short-term financial nonsense....I know having a child is expensive but I think overall I've kept my outgoings low enough to be able to not go back to work much til she's at school??? Sorry, that's a separate and less pressing question than how I deal with current building costs!

thanks again, I really, really appreciate it, I do use MSE but it really helps to talk it over like this xxxx