What to Check on Your Credit File Before a Mortgage Application

Before you apply for a mortgage, it helps to read your credit file the way a mortgage lender will. Mortgage lenders examine your record more thoroughly than card or loan providers, because they are committing a large sum over many years. Small details that pass unnoticed elsewhere, from an old address to an unused card at its limit, can raise questions. This checklist covers what to look for, what to correct and when to start.

Why Mortgage Lenders Read Your File Closely

Lenders in the UK generally review up to six years of your credit history, and mortgage lenders tend to scrutinise that record most carefully of all because of the size and length of the commitment. They also score you using their own criteria rather than any published number, so no single score guarantees approval. Alongside your file, they run affordability checks on your income, spending, debts and deposit.

• Six years: missed payments, defaults, County Court judgments and mortgage arrears can stay on your file for up to six years, so anything in that window may come up.
• Three years: a common benchmark among mortgage lenders is around three years of clean credit history with no serious problems, which is a good reason to start early.
• Statements: lenders usually ask for the last three to six months of bank statements to verify your income, so it helps to have these to hand.

If you are unsure what the affordability side involves, our guide to how mortgage affordability is assessed explains it in plain terms. If you expect to start the homebuying process within six months to a year, request reports from all three main credit reference agencies at once. Each agency keeps its own report, so a mistake on one may not appear on the others. Checking costs little or nothing, as our guide to how much it costs to check your credit file sets out, and it never affects your score.

Check 1: Your Name, Address History and Electoral Roll

Identity and address details are the easiest things to fix and among the most disruptive if left wrong. Work through these points:

• Your full name and any previous names match across all your accounts.
• Every address you have lived at in the past six years is listed correctly, since lenders may read back that far.
• You are registered on the electoral roll at your current address, which helps lenders confirm your identity.
• Your address history reads as stable, because frequent moves can raise questions for lenders.

Some household accounts may not appear at all; our guide to whether utility bills affect your credit file explains what does and does not show up.

Check 2: Errors, Old Debts and Financial Associations

Go through the file line by line rather than skimming the summary.

• Each account’s payment history is accurate, with no late payment markers that should not be there.
• Public record entries, such as County Court judgments and individual voluntary arrangements, are correct.
• Bankruptcy entries and court judgments can be visible well beyond six years and are always declarable, so note anything old but still listed.
• Every financial association, meaning someone you share a bank account or mortgage with, is still accurate, because an associated person’s history can be taken into account.

If you find a mistake, contact the credit reference agency or the lender straight away to get it corrected. Keep a copy of the report as it was, plus any correspondence, in case you need to show what you disputed and when.

Watch out

Corrections are not instant. If you dispute an error, build in time for the agency or lender to resolve it before your application goes in.

Check 3: Hard Searches and Recent Applications

Application history is one of the first things mortgage lenders examine.

• Each hard credit check is recorded on your report and visible to any company that searches it.
• A run of hard checks in a short window can lower your credit score for six months, so space out any credit applications.
• Soft searches, including your own checks on your report, are invisible to companies and have no effect however many there are.
• You have counted the hard searches in recent months, since a cluster of applications can be a red flag to mortgage lenders.
• New applications for cards, phones or car finance are on hold while you prepare, because mobile and utility providers can also run hard checks.

Check 4: Credit Limits, Utilisation and Short-Term Credit

Your file shows not just what you owe but what you could borrow, and both matter to a mortgage lender.

• You have listed every open account with its credit limit and current balance.
• Your credit utilisation, meaning how much of your available credit you are using, is something mortgage lenders pay special attention to.
• Rules differ between lenders, but some turn down applicants who have used more than 50% of their maximum available credit.
• Older accounts with clean payment records are worth noting, since longer histories give lenders more to go on and may work in your favour.
• Late or missed payments to buy-now-pay-later schemes, credit cards and car finance agreements can all appear on your report, so check these entries carefully.
• Recent applications for short-term credit count towards the application tally, and lender attitudes to this kind of borrowing vary, so be ready to explain the circumstances if you have used it.

More on this site

• Mortgage Agreement in Principle: What It Tells You and What It Doesn’t: where your tidied-up file fits when you start house hunting.
• Deposits and Loan-to-Value: How Your Deposit Shapes Your Mortgage: how the size of your deposit changes what lenders will offer.
• Missing a Personal Loan Payment: Arrears, Defaults and Your Rights: what a missed payment marker means and how long it matters.

Your questions

How far back do mortgage lenders look at my credit history?
Negative information such as missed payments, defaults and court judgments can stay on your file for up to six years, and mortgage lenders tend to review the whole window because of the size of the loan. Bankruptcy entries can be visible beyond six years and are always declarable.

Does checking my own credit file affect my mortgage application?
No. Viewing your own report is a soft search, which is not visible to companies and has no impact on your score however many times you do it.

How many hard searches are too many before a mortgage application?
There is no set number, but a run of hard checks can lower your score for six months, and mortgage lenders notice clusters of recent applications. Pausing new credit while you prepare is a sensible step.

Do buy-now-pay-later accounts show on my credit file?
Late or missed payments to buy-now-pay-later schemes, credit cards and car finance agreements can appear on your report. Mortgage lenders pay attention to recent applications for credit, and too many can be a red flag.