Bad Credit Mortgage Calculator

Yes, you absolutely can, but it will depend on a few things like the type of credit issue you have or had, how recent your credit issues are, how much you owe(d). 

When you apply for a mortgage, lenders do a credit check on you to work out how much you can afford to borrow and how likely you are to pay the money back via your mortgage repayments. 

When they do a credit check, if they see credit issues some lenders won’t accept your application or will want you to put down a higher deposit or offer you a mortgage at a higher interest rate. 

Some credit issues impact your mortgage application more than others. For example, a late payment on a phone bill won’t be viewed as serious as a bankruptcy. 

If you have bad credit, there are plenty of specialist lenders who will look at your unique situation on a case-by-case basis, rather than rejecting you based on your credit issues. A lot of mortgages right for you if you have bad credit are only available via specialist brokers because they have the knowledge and relationships with specialist lenders. 

Read our complete Guide: Can I get a mortgage with bad credit? To find out more.

Although bad credit shouldn’t affect your mortgage application too much, it can if you’re not dealing with a specialist mortgage advisor or lender. Most lenders prefer a clean credit history because it’s easier for them to lend to you. A clean credit history makes lenders think you’re likely to pay back your mortgage because there’s no evidence to suggest you won’t. 

A credit record that has issues like late or missed payments, defaulted bills, repossessions or bankruptcy indicates to lenders you’ve had issues paying back your creditors before, and therefore might have issues this time too. So depending on your unique situation, having bad credit can make getting a mortgage more difficult, purely because there’ll be less lenders available to you. But it’s still possible to get one. 

The solution is to work with a specialist mortgage broker (like us!) who’ll be able to look at your circumstances on a case-by-case basis and approach specialist lenders who’ll accept you.

This will depend on your unique situation – things like your income, your outgoings and the kind credit issues you have. 

To work out how much they’re willing to lend to you, lenders do affordability checks. This means they’ll check your income and outgoings by looking at your bank statements to work out the kind of amount you’ll be able to afford on a monthly payment. They take into account any debts and regular payments you have coming out of your main bank account.

‘Bad credit’ is a term that’s used to describe when someone has had credit issues in the past. It’s quite a negative phrase, that doesn’t fully explain the situation behind why someone might end up with ‘bad credit’. 

If you have bad credit, it’ll be reflected by your credit score. A bad credit score is a low credit score. For more information, read our Guide called What is a Bad Credit Score?

Knowing your credit score is important when you're applying for a mortgage. You need to know what mortgage lenders will see when you make a mortgage application. Finding out your credit score will also let you know what you need to improve on, or keep doing. Check out our Guide called How to Find Out Your Credit Score. 

We recommend using checkmyfile* to get a full and thorough look at your credit history. 

Checkmyfile’s credit report will show you information from four credit rating agencies; Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. By taking a multi-agency approach, checkmyfile’s credit report will help you see the difference in how the credit rating agencies view you. 

A checkmyfile report shows you the types of credit you have, plus any adverse or bad credit issues you have currently, for example missed payments, CCJs, insolvencies or bankruptcies.  

Read our detailed Checkmyfile Explained Guide to learn more.

*Heads up, when you click through to our affiliate links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend sites we truly trust and believe in.

Credit reference agencies are companies which safely and securely collect and keep information about your borrowing and financial behaviour and history. Whenever you apply for credit or a loan, like a mortgage, lenders will check the information held about you. They’ll use information provided by credit reference agencies. 

Credit reference agencies use the information they have about you to give you a credit score. Each agency has different scoring systems, so you could have a score of 500 with one agency, but a completely different number when you check with another. That can be quite confusing! 

We recommend using checkmyfile* because they show you information from three credit rating agencies in one place. That way, you can get a good overview of how the different credit reference agencies display your info and score you.

*Heads up, when you click through to our affiliate links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend sites we truly trust and believe in.

You can remortgage with bad credit. Remortgaging with bad credit can be more difficult than remortgaging with good credit but it’s still possible depending on the seriousness of your bad credit. If you want to remortgage with bad credit, lenders might want to charge you a higher interest rate.

Read our Guide How to Remortgage with Bad Credit to find out your options.

If you have bad credit and you’re looking to remortgage, it’s a good idea to work with a specialist mortgage broker. A specialist mortgage broker will advise you on the lenders who are most likely to accept you, and can submit your application for you. 

We’re experts in all kinds of bad credit mortgages, get in touch with us and we'll look at your remortgage options.

Yes, you can get a joint mortgage if one person has a bad credit score. If more than one mortgage applicant has a bad credit score then that can stop your mortgage application from being approved. When only one of you has a bad credit score, and the other person has a good credit score then the lender might calculate an average score between both of you. 

Read our Joint Mortgages with Bad Credit Guide, for more info.

Specialist mortgage lenders offer mortgages which are tailored to your situation and don’t have strict and rigid lending criteria like most mortgage lenders. So if you have a bad credit rating, you have a better chance of getting accepted by a specialist lender than a high street bank. 

Specialist lenders are experts at dealing with mortgage applications from people with complex situations. They're usually not available directly to you as a borrower, but they’re available through specialist mortgage brokers - like us!

Some of the most suitable mortgage lenders for people with bad credit are our specialist mortgage partners. Read our list of ten of the Bad Credit Mortgage Lenders.

You can get approved with a home loan with a 500 credit score, but whether or not your credit score of 500 is ‘good’ or ‘poor’ depends on the credit reference agency you’re using. 

Each credit reference agency has different scoring systems. So a 500 credit score with Experian and TransUnion is ‘Very Poor’ but a 500 credit score is ‘Excellent’ if you’re checking with Equifax. 

It’s easier to get approved for a home loan with a ‘Good’ or Excellent’ credit score, but it’s not impossible with a ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’ credit score. If you have a low or poor credit score and want to be approved for a mortgage, then get in touch with us – we specialise in bad credit mortgages.

The interest rate you’ll get on a mortgage will depend on your situation, and the kind of credit issues you have to cause a poor rating. 

Interest rates are generally higher for people with poor credit ratings because they will be seen as more high risk by lenders. Although they could be higher, there isn’t a specific figure of interest rates for bad credit mortgages. This is because lenders will assess bad credit applicants on an individual basis. 

The interest rate offered to you will depend on your situation. 

These are factors that lenders will look at:

• The type of credit issues you have

• How recent your credit issues are

• If you have any credit issues which are still outstanding

• The size of your deposit 

• The amount you will need to borrow (loan-to-value LTV)