Securing a U.K Mortgage

Right ......any suggestions or personal experiences by anyone on securing a bank mortgage? Any banks that deal with ex-pats or are easier than others? I know that your credit rating here doesnt carry any weight over there but what about other things (ie:letters from U.S banks, mortgage history,payment history, etc).....I would think good payment history on this side would count for something, although I'm sure it does'nt but I'd appreciate any tips from anyone who's gone through the process.

I just opened an account with HSBC offshore.  They opened a US dollar account (for when we live in the u.k) along with US dollar credit card.  And we opened a UK Current account and Credit card.  They offer a UK mortgage with 20% down.  You can secure the mortgage either prior to or after moving.  They didn't even check our US credit, so I'm not sure what criteria they use.

The good thing about the expat mortgage with them is that you don't have to wait 2 yrs or whatever to build your credit and you get reduced closing fees as an expat.  Fill out the info on line and they will call and talk to you -awesome!

Hope this helps.    

www.offshore.hsbc.com

Right ......any suggestions or personal experiences by anyone on securing a bank mortgage? Any banks that deal with ex-pats or are easier than others? I know that your credit rating here doesnt carry any weight over there but what about other things (ie:letters from U.S banks, mortgage history,payment history, etc).....I would think good payment history on this side would count for something, although I'm sure it does'nt but I'd appreciate any tips from anyone who's gone through the process.

I'd been in the UK less than a year when I got a mortgage from NatWest with my husband.  We didn't encounter any problems whatsoever...in fact, I think I probably had the smoothest and easiest move on the board judging from the horror stories I've heard!

Anyone else have any ideas?  For us and for Celtic I think the problem is also that we are both in the US and moving back to the UK.  So one partner is not still in the UK.

Well, I'm about to do this myself, so I'll let you know what I find out.  (Course, we're both over here right now.... though we did both move over here together.  (I mean, I didn't join him because he was already living here... we were living in the states together and then moved over here together.))

So there are more of us...yipee!   I am just trying to avoid moving in to DH's old house...complete with FIL.  AAAAAAAAAAAAH!