Bridging Loans With Bad Credit: the deal matters more than the score
Missed payments, defaults, CCJs, even a past repossession. Bridging lenders care about the property and the exit far more than your credit file. Here is what is genuinely possible, in plain English.
Talk to Ashley about your deal
How bad credit bridging works
Mainstream lenders score you as a person. Bridging lenders price a deal. The questions they ask are about the property, the equity in it and how the loan gets repaid. Your credit history matters far less than it would on a mortgage, and for plenty of lenders on our panel it barely moves the decision when the exit is strong.
That isn't the same as saying anything goes. Bad credit changes which lenders we approach and sometimes the rate or the maximum loan. What it rarely does is close the door.
"The first thing I ask isn't what happened to your credit. It's how the loan gets repaid. Give me a solid exit and I can usually find a lender who will listen to the rest."
What counts as bad credit, and what lenders make of it
- Missed or late payments, the mildest kind, many lenders shrug at these
- Defaults and CCJs, fine for many lenders, especially if they are historic or being cleared with the loan
- Debt management plans and IVAs, case by case, the story matters
- Bankruptcy and repossession, harder, usually needs to be discharged or historic, but genuinely not impossible
Whatever the history, lenders want the story. A one-off event with a reason lands very differently from a pattern, and part of our job is telling that story properly.
What a bridging loan with bad credit costs
Let's be straight about this, because there's no point pretending otherwise. You won't get the best rates on the market. With adverse credit, expect somewhere around 0.9% a month if you're lucky, and I've seen rates go to the 1% mark. Where you land inside that depends on the adverse itself and, far more, on the exit. Our bridging loan rates page shows what clean credit pricing looks like, so you can see the gap for yourself.
The reason is simpler than people expect. The lenders advertising half a percent are making a very small margin on that half a percent, so they need the risk low and the deal quick. The more complications there are, the more people have to get involved, and the more their margin drops. So they take the clean, easy cases. That doesn't mean nobody will lend to you. It means the lender who will is charging for the extra work, and that's a trade most clients are happy to make when the alternative is losing the property.
You get a realistic rate on the first call, before anyone runs a check on you. If the numbers don't work, we'd rather say so early than put you through an application that was never going to fly.
It all comes down to the exit strategy
I've said this until I'm blue in the face and I'll keep saying it. It's all about the exit strategy. Bad credit isn't the thing that decides your application. Your exit strategy is.
Here's where people come unstuck. You go to a bridging lender, you tell them you've got adverse, and they say fine, here's the money. Then they ask the obvious question: how are you giving it back? If the answer is that you'll refinance onto a residential or buy to let mortgage, the lender's next question is which residential or buy to let lender is going to accept that adverse. If you can't answer that, the exit isn't an exit. It's a hope.
There are residential and buy to let lenders who will take adverse, so it's a plausible plan. But there's a difference between a lender saying they'd consider an application and a lender saying yes once they've actually searched your credit file. So we close that gap before the bridge is applied for.
We get a decision in principle done with the credit search actually run, and we speak to the underwriter first. Then we send that to the bridging lender: here's the decision in principle, here's the credit search behind it, and here's the email from the underwriter confirming this is something they can consider. That turns "he says he'll refinance" into evidence.
If your exit is a sale rather than a refinance, the evidence is different but the principle is the same. Show the property is genuinely on the market, show what it's worth, show there's enough equity to clear the loan. A lender will take a sale as an exit all day long. What they won't take is a sale you've only described.
A real example: adverse credit and a lender threatening repossession
This one comes up more often than you'd think. A client came to the end of their mortgage term. Not the end of the product, the end of the term. They were on interest only with a high street lender, around 300,000 pounds outstanding, on a property worth about 700,000 pounds. So there was a good chunk of equity in it.
Their plan had always been to sell and pay off the interest only balance, and there was nothing wrong with that plan. The problem was that when they came to sell, it didn't sell as quickly as they needed it to. The term had ended, the balance hadn't been repaid, and the bank started talking about repossession.
On top of that, the client had adverse. Over the years there had been missed mortgage payments and missed utility bills. In their head they were going to sell, walk away with 400,000 pounds, buy something outright and never need finance again. Life didn't go that way.
We looked at whether a residential mortgage could be arranged, and it probably could have been, at a price. But that wasn't really the question. The question was that the money had to be repaid within a month or two or the property was going. That's a short term problem, so it needed a short term answer.
We didn't hide the adverse. We told them straight: the client has adverse credit, here's how it came about, and here's why it doesn't matter here. The property is on the market, here's the listing. He is selling to buy outright in the same area, here are the properties he is looking at. He doesn't need a mortgage to refinance and he doesn't need a mortgage to buy. Whatever the credit file says, the exit doesn't depend on anyone lending to him again.
The lender took it. They weren't thrilled about the adverse, and because it was a regulated bridge they wanted to understand exactly how it happened rather than take our word for it, and they sent a valuer out to inspect the property properly. But the bridge paid off the high street lender, the repossession threat went away, and the client had twelve months to sell the property properly instead of taking whatever he could get in a fortnight.
The deal above: an interest only term that ran out, a lender threatening repossession, and a client with missed payments behind him.
See our published case studies →Your questions
Can you get a bridging loan with bad credit?
Often, yes. Bridging lenders look mainly at the property and how the loan gets repaid. Several on our panel will look past historic credit issues when the deal is sound, and asking us costs nothing and involves no credit check.
What credit score do you need for a bridging loan?
There's no magic number. Plenty of bridging lenders don't credit score at all in the way mortgage lenders do. They read your file for the story rather than the score, and they weigh the property and the exit far more heavily.
Can you be refused a bridging loan?
Yes, but the usual reasons are a weak exit or too little equity, not the credit file itself. If the plan for repaying doesn't hold up, no amount of clean credit fixes it, and that works in reverse too.
Does applying hurt my credit score?
Talking to us doesn't touch your file. When an application is real we tell you before any check happens, and many bridging lenders use soft searches at the early stage anyway.
What is a non status bridging loan?
Lending decided on the property and the exit, with no income assessment and little or no credit scoring. It exists because bridging is repaid by a sale or refinance, not out of your salary. Most bad credit bridging is really non status lending under another name.
Can I get a bridging loan with an IVA or debt management plan?
Case by case, and genuinely possible. An active arrangement usually needs your supervisor in the loop, and the lender will want the story straight. A settled or nearly finished arrangement is much easier. Tell us the position exactly as it is and we'll place it honestly.
Can I get a bridging loan after a repossession or bankruptcy?
Harder, but genuinely not impossible, especially once discharged or a few years on. It narrows the lender list, so this is exactly the kind of case where a whole of market broker earns their keep.
What rate will I pay on a bridging loan with bad credit?
Expect somewhere around 0.9% a month if you're lucky, and we've seen rates go to the 1% mark. The lenders advertising half a percent work on a thin margin, so they take the quick, clean cases. Where you land depends far more on the strength of your exit than on the credit file itself.
My exit is a remortgage but I have bad credit. Will a bridging lender accept that?
Only if you can show which lender is going to accept the adverse. We get a decision in principle done with the credit search actually run, speak to the underwriter first, and send that to the bridging lender as evidence. Without it, a remortgage exit is a hope rather than a plan.
Can I get a bridging loan if my mortgage term has ended?
Yes, and it's one of the more common reasons people call us. If an interest only term has run out and the lender is talking about repossession, a regulated bridge can clear them and buy you time to sell properly. Bad credit doesn't stop it when there's equity in the property and a clear exit.
Got a deal like this on your desk?
Tell us the numbers and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable.
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