On of the things on the departure list is a mortgage reference. Has anyone requested one of these from the Halifax, and what type of things does it say. More importantly does anyone know how much it will cost.

Whilst it came into my mind, you should make sure that you get your credit report from either Experian, Equifax before you start closing down accounts etc. It will be harder to get this report on your UK credit history once you leave.

I got a mortgage reference from the Abbey in 2007, think it was around £25. Just a short letter stating how long we'd had a mortgage and that it was always paid on time with no issues. Nothing much in it!!

As for Experian/credit reports, we never bothered and have never been asked for one either. However, we did bring a load of bills/bank statements with us to prove payment history etc. The power company waived a deposit because we had previous bills and the bank looked at our statements when we asked for a mortgage. Hope that helps.

we have just had to get a equifax report for getting a mortgage,i would do it before you leave its a lot easier , i would also get a letter from the bank as it might come in handy , i wish we had done all that before we left , lol
but we thought we would be renting for at least a yr and we have done it for 5 months and we are trying to move and all the landlords we speak to are either freaky or wanna rip us off , lol so for us its easier to just buy !!!

Geography plays a part in this also. Here in Ontario it is very difficult to remove a Tenant from the premises once they are in. The Provincial Statute in Ontario is very different from that of Nova Scotia. In NS they can just provide you with notice to leave with the correct period of notice which is a Landlords fantasy here. With that said, Ontario landlords are a bit more demanding on getting references and credit reports from prospective Tenants as it is difficult to remove them after the fact.

It is better to get when it is easy to get. I had a client that need to provide one for mortgage application and they had to send there passports to some office in Nottingham to get the report as they had been away from the UK for a few months. I certainly would not be keen to send my passport anywhere.