omg this is amazing. Youāre an absolute star for making this list thank you!
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Oh, one more thing: Keep in mind that deposit is only one thing. What I found harder is to find a property that is less than 5 times annual income around Greater London, as thatās the absolute maximum any bank is going to lend youā¦
Assuming an income of 40k + deposit of 60k: Your maximum budget for your house is going to be 5*40k+60k = Ā£260k. Not much there in London - and you need to consider legal fees, stamp duty, etc as well 
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I would recommend trying to get a side job or freelance gig in addition to your main job. The advantage of that is that it feels like āfree moneyā as all of that money (besides taxes of course) can go towards your savings in an interest-bearing account or ISA.
In software projects itās easy to get ~5k/month gigs and most can be done remotely & part time, so itās quite a nice bit of extra cash.
Credit cards & history
For credit cards I suggest having one and using it regularly every month up to 50% of its limit more or less, then paying it off in full after the statement was generated (you have to let the legacy rust notice your usage, otherwise theyāll keep reporting your balance as 0 to CRAs).
Get a copy of your credit report from the 3 main CRAs (youāre entitled to one free report per year as per the law), see if anything looks out of place. You can also sign up for free credit monitoring services such as Noddle but be careful to read their privacy policy, as a lot of them make their profits on shilling predatory scams (payday loans, etc) especially if you have bad credit. Consider signing up with a burner email address & phone to avoid their spam.
Close any old accounts that include credit & overdraft if you donāt need them, as lenders might deny you of further credit if they see that you already have āenoughā (even if you completely forgot about those accounts and donāt use them).
If you arenāt already, get on the electoral roll; itās a small signal but helps reassure lenders your address is valid. You can sign up online - make sure you donāt agree to be on the āopenā (publicly available) register unless you like spam & scams.
Finally, donāt worry too much about it, credit reports are a dark science and while I see some people religiously taking care of it, I am not sure they end up in a better position compared to someone that doesnāt even think about it (but always pays the bills on time). At the end of the day the main objective of credit reports is to weed out bad payers - as long as youāre not one of them you should be good to go. I am not convinced that worrying about an account not being on all 3 CRAs or about account lifetime is justified, especially for mortgages where thereās a lot of manual review (as opposed to ācomputer says noā).
Things not to do
Lookup my Monzo account on the customer service tool and use it as an example of what not to do. 
As a start Iād recommend not saying āItās Monzo time!ā every time you get paid and going to the pub or shopping to spend it all.
Finally Iād say, do you actually want a house, and why? I see it as a huge liability - I very much value my freedom of moving around any time I want and not having to worry about selling it, etc. If youāre just falling for the ārenting is throwing money awayā BS, I suggest you read this.
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Yes there seemed to be some quite strong opposition to even asking that question in the other thread so it just died. I was going to bump it the other day but couldnāt face defending why I thought it was important.
I donāt need Monzo to comment on the criteria of every lender, I need to know if it effects any lender at all because it might reduce my already slim pickings.
We donāt need an extended discussion here as a thread already exists but itās concerning that there isnāt much information available and it could have a big impact.
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Landlords, thatās why I want a house. A few of the houses in my estate(Bedfordshire not London) are rented and the landlords seem to up the rent, without real reason. Have a revolving door of tennants (a new tennant every year it seems for most of them) and seem generally uninterested in upkeep of the properties mostly due to the fact they have about 5 different properties and donāt bother to look after them all. Iād rather not deal with that and just own my house/land. If I move to somewhere else, then sell up and buy elsewhere. Then again I donāt feel the need to relocate from south east England so my situation is different to yours 
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Itās worth spending an hour or so every year to make sure youāre on the cheapest plans possible for services you require like:
- gas
- electric
- mobile phone (if you like you handset and your contract has ended. Switch to sim only).
- car insurance
- Broadband / TV
- house insurance etc
Itās easy to presume you got a good deal when you signed up but often after the first 12 months this isnāt often the case. Especially if you just renew. Check out other companies or even what youād get charged for signing up again as a new customer (I saved over Ā£200 doing this alone).
Checking these things only takes a few mins each if you use good comparison website etc. You can easily save a few Ā£100 in a matter of mins which can easily go towards that deposit!
Again as others have posted above the MSE (Money MakeOver) site can help a lot with this although it does got a bit overboard in places. Do the main items first and work your way down the list. Itās all down to how granular you want to be. The site has lots of tips on money saving.
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Yeah. They can be a pain. I have to say: Over the years, I have rented only two properties, and in both cases the landlords were brilliant. Yes, they increased the rent every year, but by a reasonable amount, and they provided serious value for money in taking care the flats were kept in good order. But stories I have heard from less fortunate friends make me weep ā¦
Anyways, I think itās a good exercise to ask this question, as too many just assume it as a default position without really considering the pros and cons, when renting is a totally valid for some. Incidentally, I was opposed to owning a house for a long time (probably due to my good experiences), but once family comes into play the whole situation changes drastically ā¦
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Watch out for mobile & home broadband contracts though - they are often a scam to keep you once you realise how bad their service is. I always recommend 30-day rolling contracts instead so you can run away as soon as they turn to shit (or if a competitor suddenly starts innovating and you need that new feature of theirs).
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If you are in contract watch out as they often donāt tell you your contract has ended. And just start charging an inflated cost. BT do this quite often. Always worth a call to them to renew a contract or move elsewhere
Itās good you found some! I have never seen/heard of any landlords that are like that 
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A good thread Iāll keep an eye on having recently moved to London. Iām 25, and am in the Ā£35k - Ā£40k bracket but still struggle to save so am surprised people have managed it. I donāt particularly spend a lot of cash, only buy things that I need, rarely go out and walk to work. I will be reviewing all of my contracts upon expiry and will likely end up buying a little outside London once Iāve raised a deposit (currently live 5 mins from London bridge).
Good to hear Iām not the only one, though!
Is that due to the higher rent living in London? Commuting costs etc? Is struggling to save that you donāt save at all? Save adhoc etc? Iām interested to understand the differences between people living in London like yourself and myself who lives about 30 minutes outside of London. I understand if you do not want to share your specific details with us.
Cost of living is overall higher in London, even if we discard the rent.
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Iām in the Ā£20k-25k bracket and I find it extremely difficult to save in London. I would say that commuting cost is probably my highest expenditure, but rent is basically half of my take home pay too.
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Doesnāt reflect too well on Monzo, if thatās what they pay for London based jobs, to be honestā¦
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Itās mainly the rent, Iām lucky in that I can walk to work (10-15 minutes walk). I actually really enjoy the walk to. I moved down from Scotland, where I had lots of spare cash. My rent is now three times what it was for a property less than half the size (house vs flat) then of course thereās the other extras and the fact that Iām currently hammering my student loan repayments (which will be completely cleared this year). I do expect once thatās paid and Iāve reviewed my contracts that I brought down with me (mobile, broadband etc) that Iāll be able to reduce my outgoings and start putting a little something aside.
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To be fair, I do feel that Iām paid commensurate to my role! The progression here is pretty good too, and I only work four days a week. 
Not that I wouldnāt mind a raise, but I think that this is currently fair.
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Wow I can see why itās hard for you and other people to be able to afford to save for a deposit living in London if rent is that high!
Yep. I canāt imagine even living on that in London. I used to be in that bracket living in the countryside and even then it was tough.
Iāve always thought Monzo seemed to be on the lower side of the salary scale for most of their roles, especially for London
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