When in the application process do they credit check?

[RichInBunlyGoodness]

We are in the process of arranging our mortgage and have recently had to put a biggish expense on the credit card. We are a way through the application process; we've had the agreement in principle, submitted the full application and provided various additional documents that the building society (Newcastle) requested.

I'm hoping that they've already done a credit check and won't repeat it but I can't stop fretting that this increase in our debt will scupper our application. Any one know what the process is when applying for a mortgage? Is a credit check done fairly early on?

Thanks

I'm no expert but going through the process at the mo. I got the impression from our financial advisor that they do it at the start of the process. Don't think they'd do it again. Which is handy as we forgot to shift money and all the fees knocked us way overdrawn for a couple if days. Oops

Our mortgage application only took a week in total so can't say when the credit check happened. Was your offer based on salary multiples or affordability?

credit checks are based on your ability to pay it back not on how much you owe, so any missing payments will count against you,

you can get a credit check online so you can check yourself.

I think the check is done pretty soon in the application process, so no more time is wasted

Thanks for the reples. Not sure about income multiples/affordability. Its a guarantor mortgage with FIL acting as a guarantor.

Just worried if the lender sees that the total amount of debt has risen we will be scuppered (we have been rejected by one lender already as debt too high for income).

As a condition of our mortgage we had to clear any outstanding balances on credit cards and they said they will check.

As far as i'm aware they do it at the start but could do another one at any time. Its not worth risking it til you exchange contracts as if they see it has changed then they can withdraw their mortgage offer I think.

Oh yes good point. My financial advisor did keep asking us about any credit card debt and checking it would be paid off before completion