act1980

Hi,

I have heard on here that when applying for a mortgage in Canada or other credit that they are able to access your credit rating in the UK.

Could someone please confirm if that is true?

Many thanks!

rgilbert

When we applied for our mortgage we obtained our own UK credit reports (at our offer and their request) and passed them onto the bank. The first company we applied for a mortgage through, refused us as we had no Canadian credit history. When we offered to obtain our UK credit history they were not interested. It seems like it depends on who you apply for the mortgage through as to whether they will take the UK credit history into account.

I don't know if they can obtain the credit history themselves or not, as we got the info for them.

If you plan on obtaining your own Credit History report they only have a limited lifespan. I think the ones we had were 30 days.

Monkey Puzzle

We did this too. We had a very helpful mortgage broker who jumped through hoops to secure us a good deal given that we had no Canadian credit history and are only on temporary work permits currently. (The lender also wanted proof that we had applied for PR.)

It was easy enough to get a credit history report for free ..I think it was from Experian.

Good luck!

act1980

So you do have to provide your credit file from the UK?

Monkey Puzzle

We certainly had to as it was one of the conditions of lending us the money. We decided between 2 lenders that the mortgage broker found for us ...but both of them needed the credit reference file from the UK. It showed that we had no outstanding UK debt and had never missed a mortgage/credit card payment while in the UK so they were happy to lend us the money. (It also helped that we had a sizeable downpayment and proof of earnings from the Canadian employer of course.)

From our experience, it is worthwhile getting a broker recommended to you by someone who had used them and been impressed with their service. This was especially valuable to us as we had unusual circumstances ie were on temp work permits.

christmasoompa

It does make sense that they'd need to see a credit report from the UK I guess. Mortgages are lent on affordability and it's not much good if they just base it on your income when you could have a massive outstanding loan in the UK! So I guess they have to check that you don't have any other commitments back in the UK too before deciding how much you can borrow.

SarahBC

Hi,

We had great success with our local credit union (bit like building societies used to be).

Their broker sourced a mortgage for us and we'd only been in the country for six months on a TWP. We didn't have to show evidence of applying for PR (we didn't do that for a couple more years).

In Canada, you have to purchase CMHC mortgage insurance if your downpayment was small (less than 25%, but you'll have to check). The cost gets wrapped into your mortgage payments.

Generally, you can deposit your property tax payments in with your mortgage each month so that you've saved up enough by the time they're due in the summer.

We printed off our Experian credit report to show the broker, and that was fine.

We initially asked CIBC for a mortgage (who we'd been banking with for 6 months) but their broker wouldn't even entertain the idea of sourcing us a mortgage.

However, we'd never even had a credit union account and their broker managed to source us a mortgage. Much better service too.

Hope this helps,

Sarah

Rainey69

We printed off our Experian credit report and brought it over with us but found it was not needed, when we applied for a mortgage our broker was fab. We had TWP and had only been in the country 6 months, he got us a mortgage based on the 6 months work history, bank accounts, rent reference etc and got us a really good rate.

I would bring an Experian report with you just in case, although i have not known them to be used, it is better to be on the safe side and bring too much paperwork than not enough.

Hope that helps you, and best of luck

Tracie107

We too, just printed off our Experien report for hte mortgage broker, other than that no-one else ever requested to see them.

moondevil

They dont want ours

As we opened bank accounts whilst on recci and have had accounts for 18mths with them they have said nope they will use there info

They have advised us until our PR is in the system so that we can get a better rate, so a couple of months down the line and guess who is house hunting

I made a good contact at the bank, use who you can to help you, but be honest

Good Luck

danfolkestone

I banked with HSBC in England, and now use them over here as well. They were able to check my UK credit history.

HSBC haven't been perfect, with some mistakes along the way, probably mostly because the immigration factors mean that the processes are slightly different to normal. However, they were great for getting a mortgage. The approved us faster than is normal for lifelong Canadians - our realtor and lawyer were both shocked. Moreover, they were able to waive the 3 months' continuous work experience which the banks all seem to require, because they knew we had a good history from the UK.

As an added bonus, they tell us that we automatically qualify for a $5,000 credit limit on our HSBC credit card because we have a mortgage with them - although I'm still waiting for the increase to take affect more than 6 weeks after the move!

We're in a slightly different position to most on this forum, as my wife is Canadian, but we have been told that the same would apply if we were both recent immigrants.

JonboyE

As you can see from the reports of other posters the answer is that it depends. Different lenders have different criteria, even different people within the same bank will have different levels of authority and/or use their discretion in different ways. You should shop around for the best deal. As a newcomer it is a very good idea to help your own research by talking to a mortgage broker.

I've never been asked for a UK credit report, but clearly some people have. If your credit history in the UK is good then it can only be helpful to bring it with you.

Monkey Puzzle

I wouldn't actually "bring it with you" as a very up-to-date report was needed from us. It's easy just to print it off Experian's website as and when you come to need it.

shelley748

Yes it is true we can access any credit bureau...

shelley748

FYI not all banks use credit bureau to open accounts- I can speak from experience having worked for 2 different banks since my time in Canada- one did do a CBR check the other did not..