How To Get A Mortgage While Matched Betting

Mortgage While Matched Betting

If you’ve just gotten started with matched betting, you may have seen a few scare stories about people being denied lending for a mortgage due to their so-called ‘gambling’, or being forced into accepting higher interest repayment rates.

In this article, we will take a look at the main reasons why lenders do not like betting, the differences between matched betting and traditional betting, and provide you with a few key tips to help you get a mortgage while continuing your matched betting – either casually or full-time.

Don’t worry – just follow these steps and you’ll have no problems!

Why Lenders Don’t Like Betting

When you apply for a mortgage, a lender will seek to find out how risky it will be to lend you money. To them, any kind of betting is defined as gambling. They do not distinguish between matched betting and traditional betting. 

Gambling itself has always been seen as a risky way to make money, and certainly not reliable. Of course, by its nature, it is more risky than having a regular job with guaranteed, fixed monthly income.

This makes it difficult for professional gamblers such as top poker players to succeed in applying for a mortgage.

In the eyes of the bank or mortgage lender, one wrong move and you could lose all of your money.

They do not understand the distinction between matched betting and other types of gambling. Of course, we know that with matched betting we are not risking any of our own money and that we are guaranteed a profit every time.

Do not worry too much about having a bet or two appear on your bank statement.

Most people place a wager every now and then, and banks are well aware of this. Spending a quarter of your paycheck down the pub every weekend is more risky to banks than a small wager now and then.

That said, everything you can do to decrease your apparent risk to the lender can help to decrease the rate of interest you end up paying. Therefore, there are a few steps you can take that we will discuss further later in this article.

But Matched Betting Is Different To ‘Normal’ Betting?

We know that with matched betting, we are simply using free bet offers to make risk-free from bookmakers.

But most people do not understand this, even with big newspapers such as The Guardian writing articles about matched betting.

To a bank, matched betting sounds too good to be true. It is not even worth mentioning it in your credit application as any money you make from gambling does not count as ‘income’.

The up-side to this is that you do not need to pay tax on this money, but you also cannot use it as proof of how much money you typically make each month.

As long as you don’t mention it to your lender, they should not be able to even find out as long as you’re smart about it. When you open an account with a bookmaker, they may do what is called a ‘soft search’ to make sure you aren’t laundering money.

Fortunately, lenders cannot see this information and therefore it cannot affect their decision whether or not to lend you money. You can have many soft-searches on your credit file without it affecting your credit score at all.

One exception here is with spread betting.

Due to the nature of spread betting and the greater risk involved, the spread betting firm may perform a full credit check when you open your account. This will show up on your credit report in the future. Some spread betting firms offer credit as a kind of deposit for you to place your bets.

It is best to stay away from spread betting if you are thinking about getting a mortgage. There are plenty of other opportunities out there for making money besides spread betting.

How To Get A Mortgage While Matched Betting

The short answer is yes, you can easily get a mortgage while matched betting. There is an important distinction between those who have another job and those who are full-time matched bettors, however. 

A casual matched bettor is someone who already has a full-time or part-time job and just does matched betting in their spare time for a bit of extra spending money or to save up.

A full-time matched bettor is someone who does not have another source of income or a regular job and relies solely on the income from matched betting as their only way of making money. If this is the case for you, getting a mortgage can be a little tricky, but is by no means impossible.

Casual Matched Betting

As a casual matched bettor, your goal is simply to keep hidden that fact that you have this specific side hustle.

Although it is a nice income to have on the side, which really should be beneficial in getting a mortgage, the banks and lenders do not see it this way.

It used to be the case that you could simply provide a lender with 3 months’ worth of paychecks as proof of your income. Nowadays, most lenders will ask for 3 months’ worth of bank statements instead. 

Having a copy of your bank statements is a lot more revealing about you and not just your income, but also your spending activity. If someone is seen to be spending 95% of their paycheck every month, the lender will see them as a greater risk.

Likewise, if a bank sees a whole bunch of transactions with bookmakers, even if they are all income, this will be seen as a huge red flag. It is best to keep all transactions from bookmakers out of your main bank account.

This is one of the main reasons that many people open and use an eWallet for matched betting or any type of gambling.

Simply make one deposit into your eWallet to get set up initially with your matched betting, and then keep all deposits and withdrawals restricted to this eWallet.

Most bookmakers and exchanges accept some form of eWallet for both deposits and withdrawals, so you should not have any issues with continuing your matched betting.

You can simply stop your matched betting for 3 months in the run-up to applying for your mortgage just to be on the safe side. However, this is not possible for a lot of people, as there are many costs associated with buying a property, and the extra income from matched betting is crucial.

Another point to consider is that some lenders may ask for more than 3 months’ worth of bank statements, meaning you could still be caught out.

If you are applying for a mortgage with your own bank, it is very easy for them to see your entire history and not just the last 3 months.

Full-time Matched Betting

For many people, once they get started matched betting and see just how easy it is, they actually quit their job and dedicate themselves full-time to matched betting.

This can be great, as it allows for incredible freedom. You also won’t end up handing over a sizeable chunk of your income to the government, as gambling income is tax-free.

A problem may arise, however, when you start thinking about getting a mortgage. If you do not tell your bank about where your money is coming from, they will assume that you have no income, and flat-out refuse your mortgage application.

It is always best to take advice from a professional mortgage broker before applying for your mortgage. Usually, in this case, they will tell you not to bother applying with a bank, as they will probably refuse you due to a perceived high-risk factor.

One other option you could potentially look at is using a ‘guarantor’ for your mortgage application. You may have come across this term when applying for a rental property, whereby if you fail to pay the rent, the landlord can take payment from someone else who is willing.

This is the same case with a mortgage guarantor. Many people use their parents as guarantors as an easy way to get a lower mortgage rate. Of course, this means that your parents must trust you a lot, as their money is on the line if you fail to meet your repayments. For some people, this is not possible.

If you are a full-time matched bettor, your best option is to go and speak to a local mortgage broker and explain your situation to them. They are much more likely to be able to help you than a big bank, as many large companies have policies to simply deny any application where the main income is from any type of gambling.

Many full-time gamblers are prudent enough to keep accurate records of their income and profit/loss over the course of a year. This way they can justify their strategy if need be. Someone who keeps accurate records in this way has a much better chance of getting accepted for a home loan.

If a mortgage lender agrees to review an application from a full-time gambler, they will most likely look at what kind of gambling the person is doing. By simply chucking 50% of their bank on roulette, they will almost certainly be denied.

If you can justify your matched betting strategy, or prove your skills in games like poker, there is every likelihood that you can be accepted for a mortgage.

You may have to accept a higher interest rate, however, but you can try and counter this by using a larger sum for your deposit. 

Can I Use My Winnings For A House Deposit?

Matched betting is a great way to make some extra cash on the side. Once you know what you are doing, it is fairly simple to bank around £500 a month. This quickly adds up, and those who are doing it full-time can easily break £1000 a month.

The fact that you don’t have to pay tax on income earned from gambling means that you can very rapidly save up a heap of money.

The average mortgage deposit is around £33,000 in the UK at the time of writing. Usually, you want to have around 10-15% of the value of the mortgage as a deposit, so you can get a favourable interest rate.

Clearly the more you deposit the better the rate of interest you can get will be, but there are mortgage offers out there for just 5% of the mortgage value.

After a few years of matched betting each month, you should be able to afford the deposit for your own property from this income alone!

There should be no problems with using your profits from matched betting as a deposit.

Make sure you keep everything declared and above board with your solicitor. Deposit the funds into your account 3-6 months before applying for your mortgage and the lender won’t even ask where the money came from.

Final Notes

The short answer is yes, you can keep on matched betting while getting a mortgage if you are sensible about it.

Matched betting can be a great way to save up enough money to get yourself a deposit for a property of your own.

Always make sure to speak to your solicitor for professional advice about your finances.

It is also important to speak to a mortgage broker, who will be able to give you specialist advice if you are a full-time matched bettor. Planning ahead of time can save you a lot of headaches further down the track!

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About the Author

This post was written by Andy Beggs. Andy is a keen sports fan and has been writing for Beating Betting from his home in Australia since August 2019.

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