Pregnant - mortgage advice needed

Angel0007

Hi there,

We are going to have a baby and it's not that we haven't thought about it, and we do have a little put aside, but we were hoping that we could maybe take a payment break on our Abbey mortgage, or even change it to interest only, until I go back to work.

Unfortunately, other half has popped into the Abbey branch and they've informed him that they (Abbey) have been changing their rules nearly every week and they are now no longer or willing to do either of these things.

We didn't realise they'd been changing all their rules since 'the credit crunch' and we wondered are they allowed to do this without sending out letters to their current mortgage customers?

Also, they said that we could remortgage, but will need to have a 40% deposit. Well, that's nto gonna happen in this day and age is it! :rotfl:
They said we could change to a repayment, possibly, if we have an equivalent of a PEP (ie, like and endowment). Surely that would be defeating the object of us trying to save cahs in the immediate future - all this would only be for 6 months!

All I'm asking is if anyone has any advice for us and not anything regarding 'we should have thought this through' - cos that will just annoy us! We are only human!

Please HELP, only.

Many thanks,

Preggers :eek:

jacqhale

Hi, I don't really have any advice as to what you should or shouldn't do but just to say that we took a mortgage break when I was on maternity leave and it was the worst decision we could have made - I'd much rather we'd struggled through and thought of other ways to do it.
That's probably not much help you're thinking (sorry!) but I would encourage you to look on it as a blessing in disguise and be glad you can't go down that route and need to look for alternatives.

Sorry not sure about the alternatives but it depends on how much you need to cope - ebay, mystery shopping, looking through the up your income boards etc - would that go anyway towards it?
How long have you got before you go on maternity leave - can you save anything else? Also checking you're getting benefits etc.

I hope you can sort it.

Rockporkchop

What is the current term of your mortgage? The only thing I can suggest is to temporarily increase the term of your mortgage to the maximum you can - say if your mortgage is currently 20 years you could increase it to 30 years. This should bring down the monthly amount by a fair bit, and you can change it back after you return to work.

opinions4u

Angel0007 wrote: »

Unfortunately, other half has popped into the Abbey branch and they've informed him that they (Abbey) have been changing their rules nearly every week and they are now no longer or willing to do either of these things.

We didn't realise they'd been changing all their rules since 'the credit crunch' and we wondered are they allowed to do this without sending out letters to their current mortgage customers?

Payment holidays are usually a concession and not an entitlement.

If the T&Cs say you can have one, then you can have one.

If the T&Cs say you can have one subject to meeting the criteria in place at the time, then you can only have one if you meet those criteria. They are not required to write to you each time those criteria change.

That said, I dislike payment holidays. They are nothing more than long term secured loans that end up costing you a fortune over the remaining term of the mortgage.

Also, they said that we could remortgage, but will need to have a 40% deposit. Well, that's nto gonna happen in this day and age is it!

Depends on the individual mortgage. How much do you owe and what, realistically, is your property worth? How long is left on the term? Do you have any other credit commitments? What is you current rate? Is there a repayment penalty to pay if you move your mortgage elsewhere?

They said we could change to a repayment, possibly, if we have an equivalent of a PEP (ie, like and endowment). Surely that would be defeating the object of us trying to save cahs in the immediate future - all this would only be for 6 months!

As you imply, silly thing to do.

All I'm asking is if anyone has any advice for us and not anything regarding 'we should have thought this through' - cos that will just annoy us! We are only human!

I would actually suggest you hop over to the Debt-free Wannabe section of the forum. There they will have loads of money saving / income growing ideas that will genuinely help your circumstances.

Other things to consider (most of these have a cost, so don't automatically do them):

- would Abbey increase the term of your mortgage, thus reducing your payments (and possibly reduce it again 6 months later)?
- could you consider consolidating your other loans or switching balances to a 0% credit card?
- can you stockpile cash now ahead of your maternity leave?
- can you change the payment date of your mortgage from the start to the end of the month?
- does your employer let you sell holidays, as mat leavers still get all their holidays?

It's a rewarding time emotionally, but can be really tough financially. You will, however, find a way to get through it.

Angel0007

Hi All,

Thanks so much for your kind replies for solutions. :T

I'm sorry, our router was being switched off for the afternoon, so I was a little 'stingy' with the information as I was being rushed! :rolleyes:

Just to let you all know, we have a £240k house purchase (not sure what worth in current climate, but local sales are doing well and demographically speaking we have seen something like between 8 - 10% reduction in an area covering the whole of West Yorkshire, but not necessarily the case in the suburb where we live, which is much sought after). House is big with 4-bed, 2-bath and completely updated with many original Victorian features. So, although concerned, we are not unduly worried. ...it's not like we're planning on moving or anything, but it may affect a valuation in the current UK climate, which is what I'm getting at really.

Our Mortgage was for £190k, but is around £188k now, as we have been in the house for two years.

We have 1-year left on our fixed rate deal (Sept 2010). I have 6 months to go before the birth (May 2010), and I plan to take between 6 and 9 months Maternity Leave - maybe bang on some accrued holiday toward the end inclusive of the maternity leave just stated.

We have some savings and I can save for another 6 months, but would just like to reduce the largest outgoing in the short term, which of course, is the mortgage.

I think that increasing the mortgage term to 30 years (from 22, which it will be next Sept), is a really good idea, but wondered if there are any cost implications that I have not considered, for example a re-valuation/solicitors costs, and if there may be any difficulty in switching it back?

As before, your opinions were helpful are are very valuable to us, so feel free to advise further!!??
:T:T:T