Northern Rock - payment holidays - do they still offer, advice?

Becks045

I wanted to know if since the NR crisis if anyone has managed to get a payment holiday of say 2 or 3 months?

Our mortgage is all up to date (we've had it for 3 years) and even with the price drops in house prices we've still got about £60k equity in the property. We want to do some home improvements so hoped we could take a payment.

Does anyone know what reasons we should give for wanting a payment holiday? Is there a criteria? Do they credit check or is it more that our mortgage is up to date?

If anyone can shed any advice on this, would be great.

Thanks.

Louise1521

Yes they do. You can have one payment holiday after 9 mths of payments so if you've never had one you should be able to have 3.

beecher

Do you mean a payment holiday, or do you mean taking out equity? Would not paying the mortgage for 2 or 3 months give you enough money to do the home improvements?

Becks045

On their website it says that: "Sometimes you may need longer, for maternity or a career break for example. In these circumstances you can apply for a payment holiday of up to six months."

I just wondered if anyone knew if they were still offering this facility and what the process is? Yes 3 months holiday would cover what we need to pay out so would be a huge help. We took a payment holiday once last year and the year before so are currently only entitled to 1 but would like an extra 2 months.

pm2326

You can still take payment holidays, however, you are only entitled to one if you used it last year and the year before.

You can only take more than one if you have a career break (evidence from employer that job remains open) or on maternity leave (evidence needed there also).

To get your payment holiday you just ring up and ask for it, aslong as you've made the last nine full payments , and were'nt late with the payments, you wont have a problem. They wont do credit checks etc. it is simply a case of ringing up.

The only other way you will be able to take more than one month is if you've overpayed, for instance if your mortgage payments were £500 a month and you had paid £1000 for the last 2 months you would be 2 months payments in credit so you could have had 2 payment holidays by overpayment.

to save your phone bill, just remember that you can only book them one month in advance, so if you want September off, ring up before 20th of August, if you want October ring up before 20 September etc

holly09

Hi there,

I applied for a break on our mortgage payments before Christmas as I am taking a career break. I was asked to send in a letter from my employer stating that I would be returning to the same job, and a letter signed by myself and my husband to say that I was taking the career break and wanted to request a break in the mortgage. I was then contacted as they wanted to know what was the purpose of the career break - so again we put that in writing to them, signed by myself and my husband. We didn't hear anything. I phoned earlier in the week to be told that they would not be giving us the mortgage break as we did not satisfy the criteria. When I asked what criteria we did not satisfy, I was told they couldn't possibly say. I still have not received anything in writing.

This is very frustrating. Is this just a whitewash, or are there actually people out there getting a mortgage break on taking a career break? Also, is there anything I can do to appeal this, as I don't even know what criteria I have fallen foul of?

Thanks,

H

feisty1

Holly09 Was this Northern Rock?

feisty1

Although payment holidays can help in the short term, interest will still accrue and any missed interest payments will be added to your overall mortgage, resulting in increased contractual monthly payments.

holly09

Hi Feisty - yes it is the NR.

feisty1

Holly09

Do any of these apply to you?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]a second charge on your property[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]previous payment holidays totalling six months[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]If your loan-to-valuation exceeds yr product criteria[/FONT]

holly09

No none of those apply.

We don't have a second charge on the property, we've never ever requested a payment holiday before and we have lots of equity in the property.

The most annoying thing is that they won't tell us. Also, it's over a month since we applied for this, and we have had nothing in writing. I telephoned earlier in the week to check on progress and the person on the phone indicated that they would not be proceeding with it, but could give no details.