mortgage application quried due to betfair transactions

[werewolf]

Recently I applied for a mortgage with first direct mortgages. I've more than met all the criteria easily for the mortgage when today I received a call quering my account after sending in 7 months of bank statements, they only asked for 3 months but I had to order the statements from my bank as I do online banking and it was all on one statement despite only asking for the 3 months and thought it better to send in a complete document as I didn't have anything to hide. It's my only active bank account and I don't hold any credit cards or loans or have any debt of any kind and so my entire spending was on that statement and was asked what I pay cash for on my outgoings. She brought up the transactions to betfair but never went into any detail or asked any questions, I just said yes that's right, there was no point in justifying it or making any excuses so that was it and she moved onto something else. I know i've been careless here, but I hadn't actively been looking to purchase a house in this time and have been naively depositing funds. I think it's been around £600 in this period including my subscription to betangel and i've been depositing in £100 sums at random times which is affordable to me as there is a couple of thousand pounds in this bank account to try new strategies, usually after spotting a trade and my moneys been tied up elsewhere or getting badly stung after initial success elsewhere. Ironically, in the 6 months prior to this my only deposit was the £25 joining fee as I was working in profit and i've not put any money into my betfair account for about 6 weeks now, i've changed strategies to trading pre football/tennis matches after learning the hardway just to get out as early as I can and incur small losses if needs be rather than face a total disaster. but have now hit a wall at £200 for the last month but that's a different story. I understand both sides of the argument and that the banks have tightened up and I could be seen as a risk if a known gamblers betting get's out of control and the mortgage doesn't get repaid or the victimisation of online gamblers after all I could have taken the money out and made bets in a bookies or spent it on drugs and they'd be none the wiser, so spending is more regulated and is there to see. After all if i've got expendable it should be up to me as to spend it on what I like, but that's a different topic for another day. What I was wondering is if anyone else has any experience on this, i've read on the web one person got refused with first direct and this lender is the worst for flaggin this up, I feel like i'm on a knife edge now, she said that she was passing it back for processing and I shouldn't have any more queiries so I think i'm ok but i'm not feeling too confident, can anybody give me any reassurances from past experience or am I now just waiting for the knife to be plunged in ?

[convoysur]

Hi
I use a pre paid credit card for all transactions in and out..for just this reason the less the banks and gouv know about you the better.
Marc

[mugsgame]

This it outrageous. I know people who spend more than £600 a month on beer and fags.....

[superfrank]

I know people who spend more than £600 a month on beer and fags.....

do I know you mugsgame?!

[CaerMyrddin]

Hi
I use a pre paid credit card for all transactions in and out..for just this reason the less the banks and gouv know about you the better.
Marc

I'm doing the same, but it has limits. I'm considering opening a bank account abroad to tackle this. My mother in law works in a bank here in Portugal and I was already alerted by her that this can be a hassle in the future.

[enzabella2009]

Hi werewolf,
Sorry to post here....I had my 1st mortgage back in 2004 with HSBC ( I did not have much liquidity back then), I had betfair, willian hill, coral, ladbrokes, pokerstars, pacific poker, etc etc transactions all over the place on my bank statements..My proven wage was around £2200 net and a high credit score, I had no problems or query from Hsbc. The same thing happened in octber 2007 with Halifax. I saw an oppurtunity to buy a 2nd house, had betfair transactions all over the place as well on my bank statements but, halifax was ok to lend the money...I have not dealt with any of the mortgages since 2009 in England so I dont know for sure if things are changed by now...
I wish you best of luck

[Dobbin]

Hi there

It is a bit rich the banks looking down on Gamblers and treating them as 2nd class citizens

They should maybe look at their own actions over the last few years.

Pot and kettle I think

Dobbin

[werewolf]

Thank's everyone for taking time out to reply, much appreciated. I got a letter today from first direct saying that they'd be in touch in the next 14 days so i'll put the outcome on here so other's hopefully don't get caught out like me. Done some more research on the net, just glad I don't live in Ireland as by the sounds of it I really would be strugglin. Read about one guy there who was a heavy gambler who had a seperate bank account from his wife. He used other accounts not his everyday one to deposit money into betting accounts but his wife had a single paddy power account which she'd deposited 15 euros in the 6 months of her submitted bank statement. She received a letter summoning her for a meeting with the bank manager solely on this small transaction as she was deemed a potential risk. The bank manager was almost embarrased and everything was fine after, but it shows how much they're crackin down with online betting accounts. I had a look on the betfair deposit page to see if there was any warnings in small writing anywhere but spotted nothing, guess it's not in their interests if people knew how badly it can affect loans. You'd think they'd offer an alternate deposit payment method where you pay straight into betfair but it goes through a different company and show's up as something else, but I don't know the legalities of that, though i'm sure i've seen something similar before where it says a payment does't show as the company on a bank statement. Most annoying thing is it's because I wanted a little extra income from trading for when I bought a house to go towards the small luxuries like a holiday etc, otherwise i'd have packed this in months ago as it's not been worth the time, energy or stress i've been through in the past few months. Hopefully it'll all turn out to have been a routine call but I can't help feeling now that after smokers have had their day we'll be the next target. I'd have probaly been looked better upon if i'd got a car on finance and had to pay £300 a month for the next 5 years.