My feeling is that you should get a credit card because you want to use one. If you don't want one, you shouldn't get one. You need to be careful about taking advice like this in a branch as they do like to sell things that are not needed. Savings accounts are hardly more secure than current accounts but they do pay a little interest.

Not being on the electoral roll will effect your application but there are ways round this which, often, involve paying more than you should. It would be worth having a chat with an independent mortgage adviser or two to see how they compare with what HSBC are offering.

It is extremely important that you do not take any steps involving large sums unless you are totally clear about what you are doing and why. If you are not sure, it's often best to do nothing.

An option to consider is to contact the council tomorrow so that you get onto the electoral roll (it'll take a few months) and then apply for a mortgage when that process has been completed.

Hi Guys

I’m looking for a bit of advice on my mortgage application. I have been banking with HSBC for 5 years. I will be able to put down deposit of 200000, the value of the property is 410000, I got decision in principle certificate several days ago from HSBC, now I’m worried. My HSBC internal score is 70, they seem happy with that. I just checked my Experian credit, realised I didn’t have ELEC.ROLL for my addresses, I simply didn’t pay attention to that kind of stuff, didn’t realise that stuff would be so important, will my app be declined because of this? Also, at the appointment with mortgage adviser in the branch, the gentlemen advised me to open a new credit card, saying that would do good for the application, so I let him to open a credit card for me on that day, he also transferred a lot of funds from my current account to online savings account, saying that would be more secure, not clear about that. I later found out that open a new credit card would affect my credit score. They have arranged another appointment for the app next week. BTW, they didn’t mention anything about my credit score on the day they gave me the certificate, they just told me that I got good account with them and it’s good I will be able to put down large deposit. My wage is 4000 before tax. They took a copy of pay slips.

Could you let me know your thoughts on my app please ? I really appreciate your time.