Switching mortgage/Credit bureau

Hi
I have recently been enquiring about switching my mortgage, but have been experiencing some resistance from lenders. The reason being my bad credit history, i got into a bit of trouble five years ago through a break up and a mortgage with boI, THis was settled two years ago and the account cleared which was when i was placed on the credit bureau. ive had my mortgage now since feb 07 (132ke @ var 4.8% 32yrs irish nationwide) this has increased over time and is now 5.7%, i am aware i got away lite and my % rate could be alot higher. I also have a short term loan with the credit union ( 20ke @ 7% 5yrs ) this i had hoped to consoladate(crazy as it may seem) but my house was last valued @ 150k,I presumed that after a 15 months of good credit with my mortgage, id be able to go to a bigger bank and get a lower interest rate but so far EBS and First Active whom took all my details have yet to call, that was a good few weeks ago so i doubt if they will either. I contacted my mortgage provider ( Irish Nationwide ) thinking if i told them i was goin to switch to another lender if they didnt lower their rate, but they said the best they could do would be to put me on a fixed rate for five years @5.6% which is .1% lower than wot i have at the moment.
Any sugestions?Am i being too honest with the lenders telling them straight away About the credit bureau?Help!!

jerry1 said:

Am i being too honest with the lenders telling them straight away About the credit bureau?Help!!

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It doesn't matter if you tell them or not, they will find out. No bank is going to lend large sums of money without carring out a full check (including checking the ICB report) of a potential customer. At least if you raise the issue first you have an opportunity to explain the problem and the situation surrounding it which they may take into account. The issue surrounding your missed payments will remain on your ICB record for five years after you settled the issue (so for another 3 years).

As for the rates, other than telling you to keep trying the different lenders (as each will have a different way of calculating your credit rating the replies could be very different) the only other suggestion that comes to mind is to try a mortgage broker to assist in making the multiple applications. I'm not suggesting it will get you the lowest rate (although I'm also not saying it won't), but at least you'll remove some of the legwork in investigating the rates on offer.

Thannks very much satanta