Owning your own home

You can get an experian account for about £15 a month, which shows your credit rating and all details feeding into it.

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk

Or you could go via quidco.com and get paid £5 for signing up to the 30 day free trial. I've never had any hassle cancelling.

If there are lots of recent checks some lenders' systems will guess you've been applying for credit elsewhere and this will go against you. But it's very unlikely to make the difference between a yes and a no unless you are borderline.

The most frustrating thing is that if you fail on a credit check a lender won't tell you exactly why so you just have to spend another 2 weeks and lump if cash trying someone else. Like TW2 says; the criteria is arbitrary and a lender will vary it depending on their mood at any one time.

When applying for a mortgage I was told by two separate financial people that doing a credit check actually affects your credit rating- the fewer you do the better

Any checks on your credit report are recorded on your credit report.

As with all credit scoring, it's entirely aribitrary whether or not this is interpreted as a positive or negative action.

You can get an experian account for about £15 a month, which shows your credit rating and all details feeding into it.
http://www.creditexpert.co.uk

I got it for free, checked rating, then closed account.

Ta people...what I was trying to say "if you've got a good credit rating at the time for applying for a relatively small mortgage would older issues work against you?"...or does the fact that you've had defaults even 5 years earlier mean you won't get a good score?

Getting recent credit rating/file deffo 1st stop.

Credit reports go back for 6 years only.

I can't remember if applications for credit are recorded on your report or not.

We should just take money from hippy - he's obviously rolling in it.

Why, because I'm too tight to pay Experian's £15?

I'll give you the £15 but I expect something in return, sweet cheeks...

Pics & PM sent.

Dibs!

Credit reports go back for 6 years only.

This has been the most helpful/useful post thus far. Ta!

Be that as it may credit history goes back to the beginning of time... certainly in my case.

But nobody can see that history beyond 6 years...

Unless they look it up and keep it for more than 6 years, which I'm pretty sure every institution does, even if they're not supposed to

They would face fines from the ICO (meh - chump change) and the FCA (not so chump change - more like tens of millions).

I'm sure that some lenders' controls and data audit is not that shit hot, and they may have older data around - but if they are actively using it, that would be picked up in regular internal and external audits.

Has anyone here applied for one of the help to buy mortgages yet (second wave)? I thought that they had bought them forward to this month but the bank websites I've looked at are still not showing their lending rates or the details...

My girlfriend & I have just managed to save up enough for a normal/standard deposit/mortgage but we thought if the banks were lending at a 75% rate on the help to buy we might use the government help to buy money & make profit from our saving for 5 years then pay it off. But if they're still lending at 95% as some people seem to be suggesting, I think it'd be better to just get a standard mortgage with all of our deposit...

So if anyone has any (not too personal) information from the lenders it'd be appreciated in order to make a decent modelling spreadsheet.

offer accepted! now the fun begins until completion

Congrats and good luck JV.

Worth mentioning that Martin at Gisby Harrison has proved to be a very good solicitor indeed for a couple of folk on this thread, my self included.

I found this a quite interesting, if somewhat obvious read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/londons-great-exodus.html?_r=0

Too slow mikec, bendix, page 77

Does it make more financial sense to buy a one bed with a small mortgage, or buy a two bed with a maxed out mortgage and rent out the spare room?

Depends what you want, what you can find, if you're cool with tenants, what you can afford to live on while repaying, how much of a rate rise you can cope with given your repayments, etc.

Does it make more financial sense to buy a one bed with a small mortgage, or buy a two bed with a maxed out mortgage and rent out the spare room?

If you decide to sell it or rent it out in a couple of years then a 2 bedroom is a lot more marketable (from my understanding) than a 1 bedroom so easier to sell, more change of making more money on it

If you don't mind a lodger you can get someone in and it can pay off a large chunk of your mortgage so monthly costs won't be much different but the amount required for the deposit would be higher

Can anyone recommend me a roofer/chimney person?

I need a quote for repointing the brickwork on the stack, supply and fit new pots and clean/line the flue.

It seems that an identical flat to mine, but on the ground floor (I'm on third) had just been advertised at 15pc above what I've paid - and I haven't even moved in yet. I highly doubt they'll get that much, and it may just be a fishing attempt, but things feel like they're going a bit silly at the moment.