Tenants who are prompt payers and use a rent reporting service could find themselves ahead in the mortgage stakes.
This is thanks to a new collaboration between CreditLadder and Nationwide.
It is a first in the UK, and in line with the Government’s Rent Recognition Challenge, launched in the 2017 Autumn Budget.
This was a £2m competition for firms to develop applications to help renters boost their credit scores and get on the housing ladder.
Now, for the first time, data accessed via Open Banking will be used to help tenants find out if they are eligible for a mortgage with the building society.
CreditLadder can analyse the income and expenditure data of its users and overlay it against Nationwide’s qualifying mortgage criteria.
Tenants who meet the criteria and continue to pay their rent on time will be prompted to discuss their options – if they wish – with Nationwide’s mortgage consultants and to apply for a loan.
While there is no guarantee that users will be accepted for a mortgage, those who do not qualify will still receive periodical checks to see if their circumstances have changed.
Sheraz Dar, CEO of CreditLadder, said: “Tenants already using the CreditLadder service do so to improve their credit rating as well as looking to increase their chances of being approved for a mortgage.
“With the service now live, the relationship is the first of its kind between a rent reporting service and a mortgage provider in the UK.
“Working with Nationwide is a key plank in our plans to help those who dream of owning their own home to realise their aspirations.”
CreditLadder claims to be the first and biggest rent recognition platform in the UK, enabling renters to add their payments to their credit history.
The company was a final stage winner of the Rent Recognition Challenge and became one of 20 businesses chosen from nearly 100 to join the Treasury-supported Tech Nation fintech programme.
Greg Michel, of Tech Nation, said: “It’s great to see CreditLadder grow as a business and find another way to help people reach their life goals by improving their credit score. We are proud to have them as alumni.”
Comments (14)
This is beyond parody. Could, maybe, perhaps, possibly…….. no it won’t, rental payments do not influence credit scores in any way. A £2,000,000.00 competition , please!
March 2019: “Now, for the first time” (i.e, a bank finally showed some interest and said they may consider using these payments)
March 2018: “Many of the UK’s 11m private renters are finding it harder and harder to get on the property ladder, so it’s no surprise that a service like ours which gives them a leg-up is proving popular.”
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You can’t have it both ways Mr Dar. You can’t publish a press release saying that a bank MAY now consider rental payments, but also have been selling subscriptions to your service for years.
Sorry but how does this improve credit rating? It does not.
As for the lender at no point do they say it helps you obtain a mortgage, it is just a glorified referral system. No advantage of using creditladder at all.
It can be used to artificially boost your existing score.
Unlike mortgage payment history, rental payments & general expenditure are not identifiable with Credit Reference Agency data, so by supplementing their mortgage application with open banking data, a lender can then see more easily how much rent is paid per month as well as the stability of those rental payments.
The lender can then adjust the clients credit score positively if appropriate.
It’s snake oil and does not make a jot of difference to them being offered a mortgage.
Well it would do if the score cut off for getting a mortgage was 680, and they were currently on 670 but could add 20 points by showing they haven’t missed a rental payment in the last 12 months.
That’s literally how this would work.
I have experience I the mortgage industry.
The only things that really effect what mortgage or rate you get is deposit and affordability.
To show you are ‘credit worthy’ if their rate is that low I.e. have no credit. Get a credit card.
Applicants do not fail to get a mortgage on credit score UNLESS they have poor credit, missed payments, ccjs and if that is the case the product does not repair that damage.
Also,how does it know when a tenants’ rent is due? This just checks that they pay regularly – they may be habitually late.
Having knowledge of the sales end of the mortgage industry does not make you an expert at the decisioning end. If you believe that the only thing to affect a decision is the size of your deposit and affordability, then you’re proof that having a small amount of knowledge is dangerous!
Applicants don’t fail on a credit score because of missed payments or ccj’s at all. If you have these, then you’ll be declined through policy rules by the lender and a score wont even get so far as to be generated. It’s incredibly easy to fail on a credit score and be a good customer. The score cut off for a decision is managed and changed by the bank. If they want to reduce risk, they change their cut off to only allow better risk customers a mortgage. In this instance, someone who met the score threshold yesterday might not today. Their risk hasn’t changed, but the lenders appetite for them has.
I am a qualified mortgage adviser, think i’m pretty well placed to know how mortgages work and underwriting criteria.
You are also aware credit ‘scores’ are arbitrary?. Despite if you have a 900 score from experian means naff all when it comes to the lender.
For any aspiring FTB out there reading this, DO NOT get sucked into this snake oil being sold. If you want the best chance of getting a mortgage.
1. Have at least a 5% purchase price deposit (high the deposit better the rate).
2. Make sure your ‘committed’ outgoings are as minimal as possible, store cards, HPI, credit cards etc
3. Make sure you are on the voters role.
4. Make sure you have last 5 years addresses.
5. You can prove your income and where your deposit came from
6. If you have changed your name since marriage make sure this is reflected on all documentation
7. If you have outstanding late payments, clear them.
If you can do all of the above (which most people can) you do not need to look at snake oil salesmen charging you for essentially nothing.
What sort of lender would just use the Experian/Equifax/Trans Union score for a decision? Its called a scorecard. There could be anything between 5 and 20 variables in the final version totalling up a score, and then hundreds of policy rules sitting outside this!
Repeat after me SmilePlease…
Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert. Being a mortgage advisor does not make you a scorecard expert.
Take your own advice and realise this has nothing to do with having a mortgage application accepted.
People do not fail their mortgage application due to not identifying they pay rent (or anything else).
If data is available that can verify rental payments, then that can be used to increase the credit score within a scorecard if the lender decided it could trust the source and wok out the Information Value of the variable.
So yes, it really could affect a lenders decision. Why are you not understanding this? As a mortgage advisor, please dont give advice to clients about scores and scorecards.
I am not going to argue with stupid, you will beat me on experience.