They score badly and are considered bad prospects.”The rules of credit scoring can also be unpredictable for the average self-employed applicant. Divorcees win more credit points than single men or women, but a divorcee whose previous partner has run up large debts gets fewer. Although having a credit card makes you a winner in the credit-score world, changing it every six months to get a better APR usually turns you into a loser. They would discover this only by actively seeking expert advice.But what seems to confuse mortgage-seekers and advisers the most is the sheer variety of today’s mortgages. Danny Esqulant, a north London broker, said: “IFAs and brokers almost need a degree in mortgage-lending to thread through the maze of information they are faced with. We need to know a host of new criteria and variables before we can consider advising applicants about what to do and where to go. They were not there three years ago and that explains why so many applications get turned down now.”Charles Reed, of UCB Home Loans, a Nationwide subsidiary that specialises in the self-employed, said: “The number of people who are ‘non-conformist’ or self-employed has soared in the past few years.
There are approaching 10 million people in the UK who are working on contract or as freelances. The problem is they fall outside the parameters of the average mortgage, so when they go to a high-street lender they are told, ‘We can’t help you’.”Tim Sturley, of Mortgage Express, which also handles the self-employed, blames specialisation. “Small, specialist lenders like us take a more statistical approach to each case than the bigger lenders and we cannot be as flexible as they can. We have to be stricter, which means we sometimes turn down an applicant for something very minor.”So what should the self-employed do to get a mortgage? John Riding has two key tips. First, before applying for a mortgage, obtain your credit files from Experian and Equifax, the main mortgage-reference agencies, so if there is a problem, you can fix it immediately.
Second, approach a recommended IFA or broker so they can choose a lender tailored to you.Last week a chastened Mr Hall applied to the Bank of Scotland for a mortgage. Two days later they told him he had been accepted.You can check your credit files by sending a £2 cheque to Experian Ltd, Consumer Help Services, PO Box 8000, Nottingham, NG1 5GX, and Equifax Plc, Credit Advice Service, PO Box 3001, Glasgow G812 2DT. The idea of using someone else’s bank card to go on a spending spree is one of my fondest fantasies, and this week it came true. Moneynetcredit cardssearch The idea of using someone else’s bank card to go on a spending spree is one of my fondest fantasies, and this week it came true. The card belonged to a friend, Claire Warren, and I used it for a week before I realised it was not mine. Unfortunately, Claire, a freelance journalist, had my card and took it on a whirlwind tour that included Tesco and London Underground.
None of the establishments we visited noticed we were trying to pay using someone else’s card, despite the considerable differences in our names and the way we sign our names.
We did not swap to see which of us could be sent to the debtor’s prison first, or because we thought it would be fun to commit bank-card fraud. The changeover was accidental and happened when we split a dinner bill at a restaurant last Monday and took each other’s cards home. We made the mistake because our cards are both Lloyds TSB debit cards and, apart from the small matters of the printed name on the front and signature on the back, they look exactly the same.Over the next five days I managed to use Claire’s card twice in Tesco, spending £38.16. She used my card in the same supermarket chain and threw in the purchase of a travel card from London Underground and two scarves from Sports Warehouse, spending in total £49.10.We made the purchases in the normal way, having the debit cards swiped and signing the receipts.
