# Will bad mortgage debt in Eire affect my UK credit?



## exeire (Jan 25, 2012)

Need advice on mortgage repossession on home in Ireland please.
I moved to UK 18 years ago but own a house in Southern Ireland which I bought about 10 years ago. It has an outstanding interest only mortgage on it with an Irish bank and is rented out.
Due to the recent changes in bank rules in ROI, the bank have insisted the mortgage is switched to a repayment mortgage, doubling my payments. The rent doesn't cover the mortgage anymore and I am having to subsidise it heavily. Due to the property crisis over there it is also badly in negative equity.
My question is, if at the last straw I have to let them repossess it, will it affect my credit rating over here? 
I don't plan on ever returning home to live permanently.
Any advice greatly received.


----------



## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Yes it will! You cant run away. You will need to tell any future bank that you couldnt keep up with repayments. They will need to see your credit history - sadly it will be documented somewhere and if you dont tell them they will find out anyway! We all leave a "credit trail"

Jo xxxx


----------



## Guest (Jan 26, 2012)

Ireland & the UK are so closely linked we use most of the credit rating agencies. Any irish debt will show when anyone does a credit check even for the smallest thing such as a mobile phone contract!


----------



## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

exeire said:


> Need advice on mortgage repossession on home in Ireland please.
> I moved to UK 18 years ago but own a house in Southern Ireland which I bought about 10 years ago. It has an outstanding interest only mortgage on it with an Irish bank and is rented out.
> Due to the recent changes in bank rules in ROI, the bank have insisted the mortgage is switched to a repayment mortgage, doubling my payments. The rent doesn't cover the mortgage anymore and I am having to subsidise it heavily. Due to the property crisis over there it is also badly in negative equity.
> My question is, if at the last straw I have to let them repossess it, will it affect my credit rating over here?
> ...


I'm not an expert on this, but I believe credit reference agencies (CRAs: there are three in UK - Experian, Equifax and CallCredit) can only hold information about you from UK public sources (e.g. electoral register, court judgements etc) and any data provided by member financial institutions in UK. They are regulated by Consumer Credit Act and Data Protection Act and it would be illegal for them to hold and make available data from elsewhere, such as abroad like Republic of Ireland. Of course, a lender is free to consult any other information they may have access to in deciding whether to offer you credit (nobody has the right to credit), but it's wrong to assume that foreign credit-related data will appear on your credit reference file. You can pay £2 and get a full printout of any data a CRA holds about you, and if it has data they have no right to or is incorrect, you can ask them to correct it and confirm they have done so.

A lender is free to access publicly-held record in Ireland should they wish to do so, and it's possible for them to find out about your foreclosure. Whether any actually does so is open to question, but if you disclose an Irish address as one of the addresses you have lived at, they may ask their Irish subsidiary/associate company to run checks on you there. They will have to tell you in advance they may do so, so you can opt not to apply for credit from them. But if you haven't lived in Ireland at all or only many years ago, they won't know about your Irish connection and may not find out, unless they ask on their application form about it.

As I've said, I'm no expert and you should get professional advice if you are worried.


----------



## Guest (Jan 26, 2012)

Ok so that makes sense. My aunt applied for hers & it showed irish accounts but her situation was a little different in that she had not long returned to the UK and when the form asked for addresses in the UK & Ireland she gave them over. They ask for the last 7 years! Suppose if she had not told them or had lived in ireland more than 7yrs ago the accounts wouldn't have shown.


----------



## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

The problem in todays world is that just about everyone has a credit trail. So the banks check with the credit agencies. If its good, then ok, if its bad then they find out. On the odd occasion when someone has no credit trail at all, then that raises their suspicions and they may well treat you as though you're a bad risk, simply cos there is no history to assess. I remember my mum trying to get a credit card and being refused - why??? Because she had never borrowed anything in her life and all her money was tied up in property etc and she only really dealt in cash - The only bank account she had was in my fathers name


Jo xxxx


----------

