As my profile says, I am a student counting my pennies, and it wasn’t until the beginning of last year I realised how much of my precious student loan I was using on rent. I live in a very popular, bustling area of Sheffield called Crookes, very popular with students as well as professionals such as teachers and doctors, where we all live peacefully. This area is about as close as you are going to get to the university, but the privilege of living within a 15 minute walk costs you dearly. My basic rent is £200 a month without bills. Last year I changed my course and met an entrepreneurial lass who, at 24, owned 6 houses she let to students. I also met a whole bunch of (considerably richer) people who were going to buy houses for themselves for the next year. Until I met these people, I had always considered buying a house whilst at university a luxury for the students with considerably richer parents. But now my eyes were opened, and I realised that I too could own my very own home! After all I have 5 years left at university! I soon caught onto the idea that a house with rooms meant a chance to make money.

In fact, the very friendly helpful telephone advisor told me that a lot of students buy houses through them. They operate on the guarantor system as well, but there are no bold minimum salaries or hefty deposits to be paid. Instead, the guarantor is sent the forms to fill in enquiring about their financial income and employment status, and these details are passed on to a business advisor of sorts, who determines whether the applicant can be given a mortgage and how much roughly it can be. When my father reluctantly agreed to being held as guarantor (much to my surprise), he had the option of giving the details over the phone. Knowing my dad better though, my request to have the forms mailed to him so he could fill them out himself was taken up without any problems, and according to my dad the forms weren’t laboriously complex or time consuming.

At the appointment I was treated very well, seated in a private office and offered drinks. The mortgage advisor then talked me through my options, showing me the huge range of different mortgages available. She talked me through the costs of setting up the mortgage and gave me lots of leaflets and information, before running through a preliminary application. The guarantor forms were sent out, and I made another appointment to see her a week or so later. By the end of the appointment, I was much more informed about what was involved in the process of buying a property and what my options were, and I was confident that the Halifax would give me the best mortgage deal.

However, one thing disturbed me. Once the application is approved, a Mortgage Promise is normally given to the applicant, a statement that guarantees you that the bank is going to give you a mortgage. My mortgage advisor didn’t give me one of these. So, when I inevitably lost her direct line phone number and tried to get in touch through the 0845 switchboard I had a bit of a job on my hands when they wanted details from this Promise. They did try to transfer my call to her when I explained I had not been given these details, and whenever I couldn’t get through I had any telephone messages I left returned pretty sharpish. However, recently found out you can’t get a Mortgage Promise until you actually make a full application for a specific property. Being told this rather than “I won’t give you a Mortgage Promise yet” would have made things a whole lot clearer in my mind, although I suppose I should have asked why at the time!

Since I had been assured I could have a mortgage with the Halifax, I have looked around at other mortgages as a means of comparison, and I have found that the Halifax offers a very competitive service and good range of mortgages. Their range included the more popular options, such as flexible mortgages, interest-only or repayment. In fact the number available overwhelmed me.