Do I really need to cancel my gym membership for this mortgage?? - Halifax

[CoconutOilWink]

So I had a DIP from Halifax (my usual bank) for 79k. I haven't included my gym membership as an outgoing because it didn't seem to fit the criteria, it's not insurance or maintenance etc.

Could it reduce the amount they will lend? A colleague said it wouldn't matter as they don't look that closely but I'm not sure now and I'm worrying myself that even if I cancel they'll say it was too late or something!

Has any one got experience of this with Halifax?

TIA

Halifax in my experience are one of the more lenient lenders so I don't think you will have a problem. Good luck

They do look that closely, they are legally obliged to. They will go through all your expenditure on your bank statement.

They look very closely!

I've got a Halifax mortgage and they did not object to my gym membership!

Mortgage lenders usually ask about any other outgoings which is where you would include gym membership, hobby fees etc, they will look at your bank statements so may query that outgoing, though it depends on the lender and how strict they are x

I took out a sizeable mortgage recently and they barely checked anything

I forgot to put an entire BTL mortgage I have on the application and it never got questioned. I was squiffy on a Sat eve, threw an application together online and got the offer. That was Nationwide. Halifax wouldn't lend us anything.

They will ask questions around your outgoings but only include something classed as a hobby against expenditure if you are committed to a contract that you can't come out of eg golf membership or monthly d/d for a yearly season ticket.

Thanks all, sounds like it shouldn't be a big problem. Fingers crossed.

I've been on all the intermediary calculators and Halifax always offered the most, considered a broker but tbh Halifax seems to tick all the boxes and I bank with them which makes the documentation easier too.

I'm just worrying myself because I've been waiting to do this for so long and now I'm almost there!

It's just an affordability checker, lenders can only loan a % of your disposable income each month. When I filled mine out the broker made me go down a monthly bank statement and account for everything. Didn't have gym membership (i'm too lazy) but I have a direct debit for child sponsorship that I had to include...it all seemed very in depth.

whereas I went with a broker: I submitted my bank statements, had no further discussion about anything! I was really surprised after hearing about the long interviews other people had had. But nothing at all for me.

We've gone through a broker and I was concerned they'd look at our spending. We spent 3 weeks in the USA recently so the last 6 months is not representative of our usual spending! Broker said they wouldn't care about that and just need evidence that salary on payslip can be seen entering the account in full.