Im screwed!!

jonesy124

Having a rubbish day - very stressed.

My friend and I have just put a 200 pound holding deposit down on a property. I am going in on friday to pay agency fees and to be credit checked. I was told by another agency that only my guarentor would be credit checked (which is my mum so would be fine), this agency however want to check me too.

My credit rating is as poor as a credit rating can be. I am now pooping my pants and dont know what to do.

Any advice would be great

spasypaddy

surely its a student let and there wont be any problem. I was never credit checked for any of the three houses i rented as a student.

jonesy124

its not really a student place, its from an estate agents.

they will be checking my guarentor too so im hoping they will let me off (as long as I am honest with them)

but i am still so scared, what if they yake the 200 deposit and the 170 agency fees and say we cant have it because of my credit score???

richa

jonesy124 wrote:

what if they yake the 200 deposit and the 170 agency fees and say we cant have it because of my credit score???

I like to think that won't happen. The deposit is to secure the flat / stop you backing out.

If they decide that they don't want to rent the flat to you (having assessed your credit history) then I think they really should return your deposit.

spasypaddy

still private accommodation, do they know you are students? if so don't worry so much about it. They should of leased to students before, ring them up and ask them about it if you want. Or give me their number and i'll ring up as a fake student looking to rent.

fidbod

Don't take any S**** from them Jonesy.

remember estate agents are the second lowest form of life out there after recruitment agents.

Seriously though if your mum is prepared to act a guarantor for your rental payment she will be contractually obliged to cover your rent should you default. This effectively makes your credit score irrelevant and the estate agent should be reminded of this.

Look professional when you turn up and make sure you note down names of the people you are dealing with. This will encourage them to treat you professionally , and if it does go tits up give you plenty of detail to work from if you take them to small claims court.

I would also consider withholding the agency fee, or part of it until the rental agreement is completed.

robbie the roadie

If your mum is acting as a guarantor then I can't see any problems there. Been a while since I was a stooodent but I think it's a bit cheeky asking for a deposit off you before they've decided if there going to let you rent the house or not. But if they turn you down then you will entitled to yourdeposit back as you haven't done anything wrong.

If I were you I wouldn't pay any agency fee's until you've got a house sorted though.

homercles

Usually you'll find that the 'credit' check is actually much more of a 'you definitely exist' check, making sure you're likely to be who you say you are etc, your bank account is real and so on. I wouldn't sweat it, hell I passed mine when I moved into my place!

jonesy124

thanks for the advice guys.

i just signed up for one of those free credit scores. I know that i will probably have to pay for it and its not really free at all but frankly I dont care. I just want to know!

overmars

Your mum will save the day...

trailtrash

Credit reference agencies rank all the way down there with Estate Agents, Solicitors and Car Insurers (says I the tax man!). Read the small print on any credit card application and see how much info you give them permission to collect! Why do they need to know your sexual orientation to decide if you qualify for a store card?!

One of the biggest, Experian, sprang out of Great Universal Stores I believe, same group as Argos (although they may have been sold on now) and they employ people all over the world just collecting information about you. Connect their database to in-store CCTV with face recognition software and the checkout will know if you can afford to spend (or more likely, are ripe for credit offers) before you even decide what to buy.

But I'm making generalisations, if I'm honest it's only 99% of the industry that's giving the rest a bad name!!

Trailtrash The Conspiracy Theorist - Just don't start me on the moon landings! I'll get my coat.

McBain_v1

Read the title of this thread and saw who posted it and was expecting something much more salacious...

...Oh well. I doubt you'll have anything to worry about. I can't think of many students who have a superlative credit rating - most of 'em are leaving with five figure debts anyway.

Then again, it was that long ago since I was a student I can't get a grip on what the "youngsters" are up to these days :oops:

daniel_b

jonesy124 wrote:

thanks for the advice guys.

i just signed up for one of those free credit scores. I know that i will probably have to pay for it and its not really free at all but frankly I dont care. I just want to know!

Jonesy, if it's not too late, the method of getting a free credit report is here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/credit-rating-credit-score#free

Dan

suspectdevice

What you have to avoid is doing to many credit checks at once.

If i remember correctly any more than 3 credit checks within a short space of time starts alarm bells ringing with the Credit Reference agencies and that could lead to a degraded credit score.

Ghost Donkey

I've been worried about this before. I was told by the agency that they know a lot of people used to be students and people still get to rent with bad credit in the past. Estate agents like money for nothing and if you're in the house they're doing no work and getting their 10% of the rent. If you have a guarentor who has been credit checked and you're paying a deposit it'd take real bad credit to put them off, not just "not having good credit". If you're renting they don't expect you to own your own house etc Don't forget you're one of a group of people in the house and if everyone else has shiny good credit then I wouldn't worry. I used to have a housemate who'd had CCJs a couple of years previously and we still got through.

blackhands

jonesy124 wrote:

Having a rubbish day - very stressed.

My friend and I have just put a 200 pound holding deposit down on a property. I am going in on friday to pay agency fees and to be credit checked. I was told by another agency that only my guarentor would be credit checked (which is my mum so would be fine), this agency however want to check me too.

My credit rating is as poor as a credit rating can be. I am now pooping my pants and dont know what to do.

Any advice would be great

Well ???

banana_man

Estate agents are scum, sub-human scum... expect every last bit of hassle they can muster in order to keep your money. Apologies to any estate agents on here, i'm sure you're all lovely people really.

The Mechanic

Don't panic. when my daugther was at uni, she bought a flat with me standing as guarantor and it was no problem. Mortgage and everything. Don't be paniced into checking stuff yourself as what suspectdevice says is true.

jonesy124

well i have handed over all of my details and I will hear from them next week. The guy I spoke to said that I really shouldnt worry as I have a guarentor. I have also been completey honest with them, he said people will only really get turned away if they are caught out lying.

So fingers crossed. Im fairly confident, in fact I have spent half of today lying in the garden looking through catalogues for things that will look good in my shiny new flat

ricadus

Something to hang your work of art on the wall with:

http://www.tuskstore.com/index.php/cPath/22

dcfcfan

jonesy124 wrote:

well i have handed over all of my details and I will hear from them next week. The guy I spoke to said that I really shouldnt worry as I have a guarentor. I have also been completey honest with them, he said people will only really get turned away if they are caught out lying.

So fingers crossed. Im fairly confident, in fact I have spent half of today lying in the garden looking through catalogues for things that will look good in my shiny new flat

A lot of people mis-understand credit checks (not saying you do). Basically, if you have a massive overdraft and loads on your credit cards, that in itself WILL NOT get you a negative credit score

You only get a negative credit score if you fail to make your monthly repayments or if you have an UNAUTHORISED overdraft (i.e. if you frequently go overdrawn with the bank without their permission). As long as you have met minimum repayments you'll be fine

Even if you've been late a couple of times, it won't get you a very bad score (happens to a lot of people when they go on holiday and forget to pay bills)

Fixed Wheelnut

jonesy124 wrote:

Having a rubbish day - very stressed.


My credit rating is as poor as a credit rating can be. I am now pooping my pants and dont know what to do.

Any advice would be great

Save the pants and sell them on e-bay to some dodgy perve and that will be your deposit sorted


[edit] actually that would be both deposits sorted

sevenofeleven

credit checks like this for moving in to a rented property are usually done so the owner of the house can get insurance for it and its contents. i know ive just rented my house out to someone as im emigrating to New Zealand on wednesday!! yippeeee! bye bye Manchester!!!