Mortgage question-US credit checked?

I am considering trying to get a mortgage, and wondered if some here could share their experiences about trying to get a mortgage here in the UK.  I have been here for about three years, and have been told I have good credit, as I managed to get a car loan. 

What I am particularly interested in is the experiences others have had in relation to having their US credit checked?  How many have and have not had their US credit checked when trying to get a mortgage?

Thanks for all of your input!

They didn't check my US credit for our mortgage.  My husband is British & I had no UK credit at the time (good or bad) -- but the mortgage was granted on the basis of my husband's financials, considering I wasn't even working at the time.  That's probably not much help, except to say that I don't think they check your US credit.

You should also be aware that many banks/building societies don't like giving mortgages to those on visas with time limits.  Some like to see at least two years left on the visa, some may not loan at all unless you have a visa with indefinite leave to remain.

See topic below


http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=35384.0

i moved to the uk in may 2006 on a spousal visa

we got our mortgage in november 2006.

they did not check my us credit. i wish they had, because i had really good credit in the states. but you're essentially starting over credit-wise here.

best advice i can give is talk to an independent mortgage advisor.

Dh and I just had our mortgage approved this past Tuesday.  They didn't seem to care anything about my U.S. side of things.  The important things that seem to matter was
a)how much our income was
b) how much credit card debt we had and if any payments had been late
c)how long we had been living at our current address (which was just over 3 years.)
d)how much we wanted to borrow
e) how much we wanted to repay in monthly installments
f)did we have any money is any ISA's or other long term plans. 

Those were the most important ones from our meeting with our broker. I just got citizenship at the end of June so I didn't even have a british passport yet nor am I on the electoral roll yet. Everything seemed to go ok and so far pretty smoothly.  Just paid the solicitor yesterday to get us started!

If you just want to have an idea you can go into most estate agents who have an independent broker and sit down and have a chat with them.  They do it all the time and they can have a look at a few numbers for you without having to do a credit search. They don't usually charge for the intial chat. We actually spoke to 4 different brokers before we decided which one to use. We decided to go with one that seemed more helpful and more open and we felt really wanted to work for us.

Some lenders do have stipulations though. For example the first place we found that we absolutely loved was above a shop. One of the lenders we looked at wouldn't do a place above a shop particularly as we were first time buyers.  One lender we looked at for the place we are buying now wouldn't do it because it was a new-build flat. They would lend to a new-build house but not a flat.

So I would suggest, firstly, go have an intial chat with an independent broker.
Secondly look around at what fits your price range and have a couple viewings.
If you find something you like you can go back to the broker you choose and sit down and discuss the possibillity of buying.

They didn't check my US credit for our mortgage.  My husband is British & I had no UK credit at the time (good or bad) -- but the mortgage was granted on the basis of my husband's financials, considering I wasn't even working at the time.  That's probably not much help, except to say that I don't think they check your US credit.

Same here.  Moved over November 2005, got our mortgage Dec 05/ Jan 06, house keys end of Jan 06.  They didn't seem to look at my credit history from the states, all they wanted was proof of address for me, which they ended up doing a home visit as I was in the process of getting a job and work was being a pain getting my contract out so I could get proper proof of address & NI card...

Thing is - US credit reports are usually pulled using your Social Security Number.  (There are other means of pulling a US credit report, but these don't tend to be often utilised.)  Financial institutions here don't have a facility/process (or any reason to) to capture your SSN, or any facility/process to pull your US credit report via the SSN, so it's highly unlikely for creditors here to do this.