HSBC Mortgages

My partner has banked with HSBC since his student days and has had his fair share of run-ins with them (like over-extending the overdraft and maxing out the credit card etc!) but has mellowed out somewhat in the time we have been together. Following a period of what I fondly refer to as 'credit hell' we having been working our butts off ever since to try and improve our credit rating to get back to a clean slate. Circumstances came up (at not such a great time, which is normal)and we found ourselves in need of getting or having 12 months to find a lender who would offer us a mortgage. It seemed that every avenue we turned to ended in a closed door and so we went down to HSBC with not too many hopes. The mortgage advisor was fantastic. He told it to us straight, told us the things we needed to do and ultimately, he gave us a goal to work towards. We came out not feeling like we had been laughed, which, after a fair few declines, is no small feat, and began working towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Well, the year is almost up and boy, have we worked hard. We went back to our friendly mortgage advisor to check that we were on track and he congratulated us on our efforts, which made us feel very pleased with ourselves. Like he said, the only way for us to truly improve our credit is to get a mortgage and in order to do that, someone has to take a gamble on us so that we can prove ourselves... HSBC are taking that gamble and I believe that it would take a very big something to stop us from banking with them from now on. They have been the friendly face that you so rarely get from Banks and Building Societies these days and once we're on the ladder, we won't forget all the hard work we had to put in to get there.