Credit scores and mortgages - help please

[Motheroftwofeline]

Can I have some honest opinions please.

DH and I have ‘ok’ credit but not amazing. We’ve never had any defaults but we do have a fair bit of debt - car finance (which my car allowance from work covers in full), a home improvement loan and credit cards which we used for IVF.

We do however have relatively high salaries which means even when inputting our debt commitments in the Mortgage calculators suggest we can borrow almost double what we want.

I’m now just worried our debt will stop us getting our next mortgage as it will look bad (even though we can afford it)

Any experiences?

As long as affordability works out then your other commitments won't affect the application. they will just take them into account and whatever is leftover will be the amount they assume you can throw towards the mortgage.

This is where Mortgage advisors come into their own. Definitely give them a try. They will know which banks are more sympathetic to you having other commitments.

Thanks very much @Notyetthere that is very reassuring. We certainly don’t ‘feel’ like we have a lot of debt relative to our earnings but when we detail it all out it does amount to nearly £50k

Lenders don’t even look at your ‘credit score’, it’s a made up number with no relevance.
They do look at your credit file and history.
DD and her partner have just got a £250k mortgage but could have had £320k, they earn £90k between them but have 2 brand new cars on finance, she has £40k in student loans and he pays £400 monthly in child support and they have one child together. It’s with Nationwide who are very strict on affordability.

The fact that they are borrowing less than 3x joint salary is a huge plus point.

We will also be borrowing less than 3x joint to hopefully another plus!