I have three credit card debts and a student loan outstanding – and am about to apply for my first mortgage. Would it be more sensible for me to include those debts in the mortgage application so I end up with one loan?
You will be required to disclose any existing debts or loans which you may have in any mortgage application in any event. The mortgage company will also carry out extensive financial checks against you in order to identify the extent of existing loans, or debts, that you may have before deciding to add to these loans by granting you a mortgage.
This is all carried out by your lender in order to establish that you can actually afford to make the mortgage repayments and that you are not over-burdened with existing liabilities which may result in your falling into arrears with any mortgage repayments.
It may well be that as a condition of your mortgage the lender will require you to settle some existing loans, or consolidate them under the one mortgage loan – providing this meets their lending criteria and satisfies any loan to valuation requirements which they may have.
Before you incur any expense in making any mortgage application you should satisfy yourself that you meet the lending criteria and that all existing loans are fully disclosed as your lender will find out about them in any event!