Figtree Financial has completed a case with Pepper Money for a customer with a debt management plan (DMP) and default on their credit file.

This comes as brokers will likely see an increase in customers with adverse credit in the current economic climate, Figtree Financial stated.


The customers were a married couple who had sold their home and wanted a new mortgage of just over £445,000 at 85% LTV to help them buy their next property. However, one of the couple had a historic DMP and a default on their credit file, which impacted the choice of lenders available to them.



According to Pepper Money’s latest Adverse Credit Study, published earlier this year, an estimated 6.29 million of the UK adult population had adverse credit. Of this group, 34% had a default caused by multiple missed payments while 33% had entered a DMP. This figure could be set to increase in the future, given the UK’s rising living costs and recent data by the Bank of England that showed borrowing by UK consumers doubled from £0.9bn in May to £1.8bn in June.



However, there are options for customers with these circumstances and after carrying out criteria research on sourcing systems and speaking to lenders about the case, Figtree Financial found that Pepper Money was able to consider the case, subject to underwriting.

“This was a difficult case to place because of the historic DMP,” said mortgage and protection adviser at Figtree Financial, Kerrie Kendell. “Even though many lenders came up on the criteria sourcing systems as considering DMPs, when I spoke to them, they said they were unable to accept the application.

“However, regional development manager, Max Hill and Pepper Money did, just as it said in its criteria. Max and the team were so easy to deal with and the requirements weren’t exhaustive. They really do seem to take a common approach from an underwriting point of view, and that delivered a great result for our customers.”

Pepper Money director of business development, Ryan Brailsford, added: “We often work with customers that we like to call recent recoverers. These are people who may have had historic credit issues but are now able to demonstrate the affordability to service a new mortgage.

“By taking an individual approach to underwriting every application and being transparent in our criteria and requirements, we make it easy for brokers to help their customers with credit blips to progress their plans.”

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