Large loans. Complex income. The right lenders.

When a high street calculator stops working

There is a point where earning more makes borrowing harder, which sounds daft until it happens to you. Then it is merely infuriating.

A high street affordability calculator is built for a salary that arrives on the same day each month. Feed it a modest basic salary plus a large bonus, or income from three sources, or earnings in dollars, and it does something unhelpful. It ignores most of what you earn, or it declines you outright, because nothing in the form matches your situation.

It is not a judgement on your finances. It is a form that was never designed for them.

Lenders who work at this end of the market do the opposite. They underwrite by hand. A person reads your position, asks questions, and forms a view. That takes longer and it asks more of you in paperwork, but it produces an answer that reflects what you actually have.

What tends to make a case "complex"

Complexity rarely means complicated. It usually means one of these:

Bonus, commission or carried interest. Where the variable part dwarfs the basic salary, how a lender treats it changes everything. Some average two or three years. Some take a percentage. Some separate guaranteed from discretionary.

Income from several places. A salary, a consultancy, dividends from a company and rent from two properties is an ordinary enough life. It is simply more than one box on a form.

Earnings in another currency. Possible, though the pool of lenders narrows and exchange-rate movement is factored into affordability.

Wealth that is not income. Investment portfolios, trusts, share options not yet exercised. Some lenders will lend against assets rather than purely against earnings.

The property itself. Large estates, land, flats above shops, unusual construction, or a home worth more than lenders in the mainstream will consider.

Borrowing through a company or a trust rather than in your own name.

Any one of those moves you out of the high street's comfort zone. Two or three together and it is worth starting with someone who looks at these cases regularly, rather than finding out through a decline.

Private banks, and when they actually suit

Private banks come up a lot in this conversation and they are not automatically the answer.

Where they earn their place is judgement. They will look at the whole picture, including assets, future earnings and the trajectory of a career, rather than applying a multiple to last year's P60. For borrowers whose wealth is real but awkward to evidence, that flexibility matters.

What they usually want in return is a relationship. That can mean moving investments or deposits across, and a slower, more involved process with more documentation and more meetings.

For plenty of people, a specialist lender outside the high street does the job without any of that. Which route fits depends on the size of the loan, how your wealth is held and how you want to be dealt with. I will tell you honestly when a private bank is worth the effort and when it is not.

What you will be asked for

Expect more paperwork than a standard application, not less:

• Two to three years of evidence for bonus or commission income
• Company accounts where income comes through a business
• Statements for investment portfolios, and documentation for trusts
• Evidence of the source of your deposit, particularly where it comes from a sale, a gift or overseas
• Identification and proof of address, often in more depth than you are used to

Being organised at the start genuinely changes the pace of these cases. Underwriters at this level look at files individually, and a complete file reads as a serious applicant. A file arriving in instalments over three weeks reads as something else.

Where larger cases get stuck

Shopping around by applying. Several applications in quick succession leave several searches on your file, and at this level lenders notice. It is better to know where you fit before anyone runs a check.

Assuming your own bank will look after you. They may well. They may also offer you the same product as everyone else, calculated the same way, because that is what their systems do.

Leaving the deposit paper trail until the end. Where money came from matters more as the amounts grow, particularly from overseas, a company, or a family gift. Start it early.

Letting tax planning and borrowing drift apart. How you draw income affects both, and they are better decided together. I am not a tax adviser, and these conversations work best with your accountant in the room.

Leaving protection as an afterthought. On a large loan it is worth looking at how cover is arranged, and for company directors there can be a sensible route through the business. There is more on that on my relevant life plans page.

Related situations

If your income comes through a limited company, the business owners and directors page covers how lenders assess salary, dividends and retained profit. If you trade as a sole trader, self-employed mortgages is the one to read. For portfolio landlords, start with buy-to-let.