Mortgage News
Aldermore to combat credit scores
Aldermore has confirmed that it will design its mortgage range specifically to help self-employed borrowers and applicants who are turned away by high street lenders.
The lender, which will launch residential and buy-to-let products exclusively through intermediaries in Q2 2010, believes that many banks are using high credit scores to control business volumes.
In a similar way to Kensington, Aldermore will not rely on automated credit-scoring systems. It has pledged to consider a wide range of factors which can cause creditworthy applicants to fail credit scores including self-employment, a recent job move and satisfactorily resolved minor historic credit issues.
Applicants living temporarily in rented accommodation after selling their previous home will also not be prevented from accessing the market under Aldermore’s method.
Colin Snowdon, chief executive of residential mortgages at Aldermore, said: “Thousands of perfectly creditworthy borrowers are being denied access to the market by lenders who rely on credit scoring and refuse to consider cases which fall outside the norm. If the income can be proven or verified by an accountant, that is fine with us.”
Alan Lakey, partner at Highclere Financial Services, added that more lenders should follow its example.
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He added: “It is unfair that a group of borrowers with minor credit problems are being disenfranchised from the market.Hopefully more lenders will assess applications in a less prescriptive way.”