Secured lending with Credit Union for Mortgage

buyer95

I am sale agreed on a house but things are held up on the mortgage approval side. We are both 28 and this is a dream small starter house. Somebody mentioned I should try the CU, I went in to my local one where I am a member. They said they do secured lending for house purchase. LTV is 90%, loan to income 4 times (not an issue), must be family home and max term is 35 years. All of that is good. The rate available is 5.5% (APR 5.64). I am aware this is high, but we are desperate to get the house over the line and will go ahead with CU if it works out.

The delay with the broker was that we only returned from working away in Australia the end of August. We have payslips since September, have the deposit, but they are quering some large transfers and there has been endless back and forth and now it seems a credit check is necessary from our time away. All of this is delaying things further and the seller does not want to wait.

Does anyone hear have experience of how fast their CU could turn around an application? It would be for 210,000, both of us earn approx 100k combined and have 28k saved. Would a CU look for foreign credit checks etc

Any insight into what CU was like for you in mortgage situation is appreciated.

frank730

they dont look for foreign credit checks, just CCR. not sure they can work faster than the banks, as they dont have in house legal team to review contracts etc. thats where the delay can be. CUs are nicer to deal with, don't be afraid to ask for updates regularly.

wads35

Was in my local credit union yesterday , just inquiring about switching from Ulster bank offset mortgage, depending on who they flog it too . Was told no more CU mortgages available this year . Something to do with being over the allowable amount authorised by central bank.