Saving for Mortgage Deposit

A question about : Saving for Mortgage Deposit

Hi Everyone,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place - sorry if I haven't.

We want to start the ball rolling on saving for a deposit for a mortgage. It won't be an overnight thing as we both need to do a little bit of work on improving our credit rating (we have a small amount of debt which although is currently being paid needs to be cleared), so we are looking at around a 4 year plan.

I want a savings account where I can transfer a monthly amount into it but that I can't touch. I've had an ISA for 2 years and have been really unsuccessful saving, due to continuously dipping in or lending the money out to family members, when any sort of significant amount has accumulated!

I have a couple of questions though:-

a) At present, I have a current account with Lloyds, my partner is with Halifax, we both have basic online savings accounts with our banks and I have an ISA with Tesco. Would we be best moving all our banking to one provider? Would this strengthen a mortgage application down the line?
b) Should we be looking to open a joint or individual accounts? Does this have any effect on the strength of an application?
c) Does anyone have any recommendations for accounts I/We could open please?

Obviously with us looking to put a 4 year plan into place, I just want to make sure we are doing as much as possible to have a strong application further down the line. Sorry if these seem daft questions, this will be our first home so we have never done anything like this before and just trying to work out where to start!!

Thanks so much for any help

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