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Adverse credit
An imperfect credit profile, which can vary greatly from the odd missed payments on loans to more serious things such as county court judgments (CCJs), bankruptcy and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs)

Annual percentage rate
The rate at which somebody who borrows money is charged, including all charges, calculated over a period of 12 months

Arrears
Money that is owed and should have already been paid, such as rent or mortgage payments

Asset
Something of value belonging to a person or organisation, such as cash, investments, property, machinery, copyright material or specialist knowledge

Bankrupt
Unable to pay what you owe, and having control of your financial matters given, by a court of law, to a person who sells your property and other assets to pay your debts; having no money

Broker
A person who acts as an intermediary (a go-between) between two parties, such as a client applying for a mortgage and a mortgage lender

Buy to Let
The term for a property, which is bought to let out

County court judgment/judgment (CCJ)
A judgment passed by a local court in respect of unpaid monies due to a third party, which is recorded on your personal credit file, which can make it difficult for you to obtain further credit

Credit reference agency
A company which holds details of your credit history going back six years. A print out of your credit history can be obtained from the company for a small fee

Credit search
A search of your credit file by companies to whom you apply to for credit

Debt consolidation
Paying of all or some of your existing debt by way of another loan (usually to lower your monthly payments)

Default
A notice placed on your credit file by a creditor when you have failed to make payments on a debt, which can make it difficult for you to obtain further credit

Direct debit
An arrangement for making payments, usually to an organisation, in which your bank transfers money from your account into the organisation's account at regular intervals. Amounts can be varied by the organisation. The bank gives a guarantee, and compensation can be obtained if the bank makes an error

Early repayment charge
A penalty imposed by a lender by way of a fee if a loan is repaid early by the borrower (this can be calculated as a percentage of the loan amount repaid or a number of months interest)

Equity
The difference between the mortgage amount and the value of the property or the value of the property if no mortgage is outstanding

Equity release
Using up the equity in your property in exchange for money advanced by a lender, which involves remortgaging to a new lender, taking a further advance from your existing lender or taking out a second loan on your property by way of a second charge

First charge
The primary charge on the property or land, the lender of which has first entitlement to any money generated from the sale (limited to its lending) prior to any other lender and indeed the borrower

Fixed rate
A rate of interest charged on your loan, which remains fixed at a predetermined rate for a chosen period or the life of the loan. This is suitable for people who are on a budget and need to know precisely what they will be paying out each month and who do not want the chance of their monthly payments going up

Freehold
The legal ownership and control of a building or piece of land for an unlimited time

Gross pay
The total pay before off-takes such as tax and national insurance contributions

Leasehold
The legal right to live in or use a building or piece of land etc. for an agreed period of time

Lender
The creditor; an organisation from whom a client borrows money.

Liquid assets
Money or things, which can easily be changed into money

Liabilities
Opposite to assets e.g. Debts such as unsecured or secured loans (mortgages, both first charges and second charges)

Loan to value
The term used to refer to the ratio between the debt which is secured on the asset e.g. If £85,000 is secured on a property worth £100,000, the loan to value is said to be 85% (or 85% ltv)

Mortgagee
A bank or similar organisation that give mortgages to people

Mortgagor
The person or persons etc who mortgages the property (the borrower)

Net profits
The profits remaining after expenses have been deducted, such as rent, utility bills, staff wages etc.

Non-Conforming loans
Loans for clients who do not conform to what is considered the norm by mainstream high street type lenders

Redemption
The repayment of a debt

Remortgage
Arrange a second mortgage, increase your mortgage with your current lender or pay off your current mortgage by arranging a new mortgage with a different lender. This is usually done to get a better rate of interest or borrow extra funds or both. Changing lenders is usually done, because better terms can be obtained with the new lender

Repossession
The taking of the property by the lender from the borrower, because payments have not been met and all efforts to resolve the situation have failed

Right to Buy
Having the right to buy the property, which you have been renting as a secure tenant of a 'Right to Buy landlord' or one of the public bodies, listed under 'Other public bodies'

Second charge
A second secured loan on your property, the lender of which must wait for the first charge lender to take their proceeds from the sale of the property before they can get their funds. The technical term for the process of a second (or subsequent) lender adding another secured loan to your property is known as 'tacking'.

Self-certification (self cert)
The process of providing details of your income to a lender when you do not need to prove income. Most lenders who allow self-certification do so only for self employed people, however there are some lenders who will allow this for employed people

Self-employed
Owning or co-owning a company and being personally responsible for payment of your own tax and national insurance liabilities, which are not deducted from your income at source like employed people

Tenant
A person who pays rent to use or occupy land, a building or other property owned by another

Unsecured loan
A loan which has no security, which represents a greater risk to a lender, therefore interest rates can be higher; however, some lenders will include in the small print of their loan agreements that they reserve the right to convert an unsecured loan into a secured loan should the borrower default on their payments. Unsecured loans will be limited to £25000 and you will not be able to spread your payments out over very long periods, which you can do with secured loans. Your maximum period on unsecured loans is usually 5 years, but some companies allow 7 years. There are also more restrictions on the use of your funds with an unsecured loan. Unsecured loans allow very little in the way of adverse credit, if any, so if your credit profile is poor you may not get a loan. Indeed, some people who have had no credit and consequently have no track record of paying credit may fail by way of a low credit score (taking into account their whole set of current circumstances)

Variable rate
A rate of interest that is applied to the money you wish to borrow, which can vary from time to time and consequently, you monthly payments can go up or down. This type of interest rate affords you no protection should interest rates spiral