Welcome to the forum Kathleen.

The question of credit records seems to be a bit of a grey area, I'm afraid, so I wouldn't treat this answer as definitive. But for what it's worth...

As I understand it, your credit file shows everything that has been marked on it over the last 6 years. A trust deed is recorded because it is picked up by the credit reference agencies from the Edinburgh Gazette - ie at the start. I don't believe anything is automatically recorded at the end showing that a trust deed was completed - the creditors simply mark the debts as satisfied - therefore I think you should find that any reference to the trust deed disappears 6 years from when it starts. There may be exceptions to this however.

Have you requested copies of your credit files? It may be worth doing so, especially from Callcredit if you think they may have the wrong information. In fact a protected trust deed can be termed as a form of bankruptcy so technically what you were told may be correct. Sequestration is the correct term for what most people would refer to as bankruptcy so it would be worthwhile checking that this word does not appear on the record.

It doesn't surprise me that the bank had no problem with your husband's credit history - I believe their credit-scoring systems place more weight on recent history rather than problems from a few years ago. I guess the letting agency concerned apply a more black and white approach.

Hope this helps

Kevin

Hello kathleen,

In terms of a mortgage there is also no black and white answer I'm afraid.

Lenders view Scottish Trust Deeds in different ways. One lender may be quite relaxed because the Trust Deed was completed as expected more than two years ago. Another lender may have a policy of not accepting a case where a Trust Deed has ever taken place.

High Street banks tend to be more conservative that some of the more specialist lenders of whom you may not have heard.

A mortgage broker can probably help you to work through this as they have access to lenders you may not be aware of (and also to their lending criteria as it concerns completed Scottish Trust Deeds).

Layering good credit history on top of the previous problems may be helpful in establishing a good credit score again.
The other side to this is that mortgage lenders have to assess the "affordability" of a mortgage for you. Having taken on other credit commitments may mean that they are prepared to lend less to you than otherwise would have been the case.

I also meant to mention that saving up the very biggest deposit that you can will also be important to whether you can get a mortgage (and also to the terms of that mortgage).

Credit score is not the only "risk" mortgage lenders are interested in. A bigger deposit reduces the risk to them of being landed with a home in negative equity.

Thanks TDA, we'd thought about the affordability being an issue too. But both loans finish in two years so if the TD is off our file next year then we can start looking properly once the loans as all paid off.

I didn't realise banks viewed things that way, I thought that as soon as we had any type of bad credit we would have been in instant no. Good to know 🙂

Thanks for both your replies they've been really helpful 🙂