When applying for a mortgage, lenders scrutinise your financial habits to assess your creditworthiness. Gambling activities, such as online betting, or using ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) can potentially impact you negatively in the eyes of a lender.

Gambling

Lenders view regular gambling, even small amounts, as a red flag. Online betting platforms in particular are closely scrutinised.

• Frequency matters: Regular gambling, even small amounts, can potentially lead to an automatic decline.
• Large withdrawals at casinos or pubs, especially late at night, signal risky financial behaviour to a lender.
• Even modest betting is viewed more negatively than other discretionary spending.

To improve your application, consider pausing or significantly reducing gambling activities for at least 3-6 months before applying.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)

While BNPL services may seem harmless, they can impact your borrowing capacity quite significantly.

• BNPL is considered a form of debt, even if paid off regularly.
• Similar to credit cards, BNPL limits affect overall borrowing capacity.
• Opening a BNPL account can reduce your credit score by up to 80 points due to credit checks.

To strengthen your application, consider reducing or eliminating BNPL and any associated accounts.

Ahead of applying for a mortgage, it’s important to take stock and have a good hard look at the way you are spending your money.

Lenders want to see that you are a responsible spender with the means to pay them back. They want to see that you can save money, manage debts well and not spend more than you earn.

A great place to start is to talk to a mortgage broker who can sit down with you and look at your current financial habits and see where you can improve. Once you’re in a strong position, then you can look to apply for finance.