Interesting seeing people being asked about details of outgoings – I didn’t get any of that (earlier in the year).

Did need to provide 3 months of bank statements, but that was to show my salary going into them.

This was woolwich/barclays and they did note I was basically a perfect customer, no debts other than my student loan, two incomes (me & partner) and reasonable deposit. It all seemed a lot more straightforward than I thought it might be.

Interesting! Whilst Nationwide weren’t bothered about seeing any bank statements (we did bank with them, so I guess they had the info), they did it all on the affordability criteria stuff.

Once the mortgage is in place I would aggressively pay the credit card off.

Ha! Never bought a house before have you?! 😆

Couple of years ago now for our remortgage (and bearing in mind it was for 50% of value of house) we got sat down for a good hour or two going through everything on our bank statements, literally down to how much we spend on a Firday night (err, nothing mate, got kids…).

IA – Member
Interesting seeing people being asked about details of outgoings – I didn’t get any of that (earlier in the year).

The criteria for mortgages changed in April with lenders taking it up at varying speeds over the next 3 months to July.

Dr D and myself got refused by HSBC in July despite having had an agreement in principal in Feb14 for a higher amount than we eventually tried to borrow.

Interesting seeing people being asked about details of outgoings – I didn’t get any of that (earlier in the year).

The MMR rules came in to play in May. I’m about to complete and didn’t need to answer any outgoing questions as I went through a broker and the monthly spending was all on the bank statements.

To the OP a lot will depend on your LTV under 25% and I doubt you will get what you ask for.
I banked with HSBC for 20 years and had 60k sitting in my account, perfect credit score and mortgage payments would have been 1/6 of income and they wouldn’t lend me bobbins.
I would go with a broker and not your bank as they have the whole of the market to chose from.

EDIT: like the post above I too had an AIP 8 months earlier, the spotty graduate in the branch said ‘that was then this is now’ when I queried why they wouldn’t offer me anything sensible. I withdrew all my money the following week, why should they lend my money out to other people and not me?

You don’t have to use countrywide for conveyancing with HSBC, you can now choose a solicitor to act for you & HSBC if they are CQS accredited (see here). Check this before you appoint a solicitor as it causes a bit of a nightmare otherwise.

And I’ll echo the sentiment about being prepared to do everything online & then spend an hour on the phone sorting it out (this is for a new house purchase). We remortgaged with them just over a year ago without too much hassle.

MrSmith – Member

Interesting seeing people being asked about details of outgoings – I didn’t get any of that (earlier in the year).

The MMR rules came in to play in May. I’m about to complete and didn’t need to answer any outgoing questions as I went through a broker and the monthly spending was all on the bank statements.

To the OP a lot will depend on your LTV under 25% and I doubt you will get what you ask for.
I banked with HSBC for 20 years and had 60k sitting in my account, perfect credit score and mortgage payments would have been 1/6 of income and they wouldn’t lend me bobbins.
I would go with a broker and not your bank as they have the whole of the market to chose from.

EDIT: like the post above I too had an AIP 8 months earlier, the spotty graduate in the branch said ‘that was then this is now’ when I queried why they wouldn’t offer me anything sensible. I withdrew all my money the following week, why should they lend my money out to other people and not me?

I’ve begun doing exactly this. I’ve banked with HSBC (formerly Midland) since I was 12 years old and am in the process of moving my money elsewhere following their less than helpful approach.

£120 a month on food!? Wow! We’re more than double that

That’s around our weekly food expenditure (2 adults, one food-refusing 4 year old)…. 😳 😳

We want to borrow more to finance an extension to our house. This tells me we could do with going through our finances in the same way…. #spendthrift

The criteria for mortgages changed in April with lenders taking it up at varying speeds over the next 3 months to July.

The application process etc was all after the new legislation took affect, we were one of the first people to go through it at Barclays.

The advisor explained he had to make a (justified) judgement as to affordability, that didn’t necessarily mean going through everything with us. We had budgeted in great detail in advance though, even although he didn’t want to/need to see it, we did offer to show him spreadsheets accounting all bills over the previous 8 years… I don’t budget as such, just spend money, but I do keep track of it all.

May be he just decided since we’d thought it all through, had good answers prepared for all the questions that was enough for him?

I honestly do not think anyone here can help decide if HSBC will give you a mortgage. In fact this stands for any provider.

The only thing you can do is apply and IF you get refused ask why the underwritter turned it down.

You have to choose the product you want first though, as repeated credit applications will eventually lead to you being declined.

£6k debt on £40k income is quite a lot! I would genuinely be worried about paying that off and having a mortgage, regardless of whether you actually can get a mortgage or not.

Again regardless of what the lender thinks, have you added 1-2% on top of the quoted rate to see if you can still afford any potential increase?

Anyone got a link to some of the example questions? I’d be quite keen to start working through the detail in advance – might help Dr North focus on whether than new handbag* really qualifies as an “essential item”.

Joking aside, I’d be keen to be prepared. I’m not as diligent as IA – I just read bank and credit card statements to check for any impropriety and then pay my bills on time. Other than saving, there isn’t a huge amount of budgeting in our house.

*Other sexist prejudices are available.

See 6k debt 0% didn’t worry me before the mortgage as I set aside £200 each month to pay it off leaving me £800 in my account.

It’s only now with the mortgage applications I’m worried.

When I get my pay rise in Feruary if be able to afford double that and pay it off sooner. The problem is age, I don’t want to leave owning a house much longer.

Funky the mortgage payment would be less than rent and that is easily affordable at the minute.

It’s that “at the minute” which is a concern though, interests rate can only go one way, and if you believe some of the commentators out there, they’re going to go up very soon.

I’d phone a mortgage broker and ask them. In the time it’s taken for this thread to have unwound you’ll have a professional answer.

Who do I ring?

Any recommendations in the north west?

see my earlier post, I dealt with Will 2 years ago, no idea if he’s still there but he was professional and sorted a better deal than I was offered on the high street.

I’ve begun doing exactly this. I’ve banked with HSBC (formerly Midland) since I was 12 years old and am in the process of moving my money elsewhere following their less than helpful approach.

I’d recommend 1st Direct as one of the less useless ones. Bordering on the competent and approachable.

I’d recommend 1st Direct as one of the less useless ones. Bordering on the competent and approachable.

Funny, I had exactly the opposite experience with First Direct and the only way to get my mortgage application moving was to call every day and stay on hold for about 20 minutes each time while they worked out who I was. I wont be using them when our current deal ends.

OP: I’d get yourself over to the MoneySavingExpert forums. 🙂

I had exactly the opposite experience with First Direct and the only way to get my mortgage application moving was to call every day and stay on hold for about 20 minutes each time while they worked out who I was.

i thought thats how you get a mortgage…..seems to be ime.

i thought thats how you get a mortgage…..seems to be ime.

I found both RBS and Barclays to be good to deal with FWIW. In terms of being able to make an appointment and go speak to a human being that knew what they were talking about.

Not sure about other banks, may be better in person than the phone?

mines was RBS

i only got it moving after weeks of nothing in the end after online/phone told me i had to go to the bank to sort stuff out – the bank told me i had to go to online/phone to sort it out – while i was standing outside the bank.

i said hold on the line- walked back in asked to speak to the manager , and just put the phone on speaker phone on his desk and asked them to speak to each other as clearly they didnt communicate any other way/time.

mortgage was approved that day in the end.

Well in a bizarre twist we just got back from our grand parents, the wife’s not mine, who have given us a cheque that changes this thread.

It’s the weirdest thing.

Thank you everyone, we will be ringing the bank and making an appointment to find out what they think.

Much good. Best of luck.

Thanks for all the advice trail – rat.

I know we need to speak to a broker/adviser but this place has such a vast selection of people it’s always worth an ask.

6k of debt at 0% while you have 15k invested earning interest sounds like excellent money management to me.

Do you do mortgages edukator . Makes perfect sense in my mind but mortgage people tend to have a different mindset.

I did borrow part of the money to buy a flat once. I had the cash to buy it outright but borrowed as the rate was lower than I was getting on other investments – with the same bank. But no, by the time I was credit worthy as a self-employed immigrant I had enough money to buy our house.

I was looking towards you for a loan more than saying do you have a mortgage 🙂