Today we're talking about .....

The Financial Conduct Authority has received almost 5,000 scam reports of people impersonating the regulator in the first six months of 2025. The FCA said it had received 4,465 reports of fake FCA scams to the regulator’s consumer helpline already this year with 480 victims duped into sending money to the fraudster. Almost two-thirds of reports came from people 56 years old or above. According to the City watchdog, fraudsters claimed the FCA recovered funds from a crypto wallet that was opened illegally in a person’s name to get them to hand over funds or sensitive information. Another common method used is to target loan scam victims, who are often very vulnerable, with fraudsters claiming the FCA can help them recover the money they have lost.  They are then persuaded to hand over further funds. A separate scam which has emerged involves fraudsters emailing consumers telling them their creditors have taken out a County Court judgment against them and they need to pay the FCA the ...

 First Time Buyers with No Income! One of our Top Mortgage Lenders are saying…. Helping the next generation get onto the property ladder is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do as a lender.  In a recent residential case, we did just that.  We helped a father support his daughter’s first-time buyer purchase of a £395,000 mid-terrace house in Gloucester using a Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor (JBSP) Background of the client Father (Joint Borrower) Daughter (Sole Proprietor) Employment Semi retired - £62.1k salary Unemployed Pension £48k private, £8.4k state (during the term) N/A Savings £351k in a joint account N/A Current rent/mortgage Mortgage all paid off £520/ month rent (paid by father) Contribution to mortgage Full affordability No current contribution Final Outcome Despite the daughter not currently earning, we were happy with the fathers strong affordability.  With a £295,000 gifted deposit, we approved a £100,000 mortgage on a 25-year capital & i...

  Helping Hand minimum income reductions We recently reduced the minimum incomes for both sole and joint applicants. This change follows the regulator's recent announcement that enables lenders to increase high loan to income lending. We moved quickly so that we could support more first time buyers to get on the property ladder.

  The Mortgage Suite How much can I borrow Borrowing used to be based on a simple formula: lenders would take your income, then multiply it by up to five and a half times (or up to three and a half times for a joint application) to determine how much you could borrow. This is no longer the case, and lenders have become much more cautious since the financial crisis of 2007-08. They are now obliged to assess your ability to repay the mortgage under rules brought in by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2014. This means they don’t just look at what you earn, but also your monthly expenses and how that might change in the future. Thus, there are three key areas that lenders look at when assessing what they will lend to you: your income, your outgoings and possible future developments. How much can I afford? One of the first things we will look at when we meet you is the money you earn and how you spend it. We do this to build up a picture of what you can afford, so we can get you a dec...

 Adverse Credit???  We are currently in receipt of a number of enquiries over the last few weeks where the client(s) have had relatively recent adverse, and they initially felt as though they had no way of getting on or taking their next step on the property ladder.    Here’s where we currently win an awful lot of business in Scotland a maximum LTV of 80% within our level 3 product range which would count for both residential purchases and remortgages:   No defaults /CCJs  registered  in the last 6 months (doesn’t have to have been satisfied or be being satisfied, no monetary value cap) Trust Deed/IVA  discharged  for 1+ years  Worst case status 3 on an unsecured loan within the last 12 months Client(s) currently in a Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) that has been maintained for at least the last 12 months No set criteria on utilities No set criteria on credit cards   Don’t forget: Latest years income for self-employed considered Lendi...