Mortgage Direct debit

collegegirl57

Does anyone know if I will be penalised for cancelling my mortgage diect debit and paying by card or cheque? I don't always have the money in the bank on the correct day. Every time the dd isn't paid the bank charge me so it would be cheaper for me to pay another way.

sophievenusdoom

collegegirl57 wrote: »

Does anyone know if I will be penalised for cancelling my mortgage diect debit and paying by card or cheque? I don't always have the money in the bank on the correct day. Every time the dd isn't paid the bank charge me so it would be cheaper for me to pay another way.

Is there anyway you can transfer the money to another account (which isn't used, or a savings account) when you get paid, then transfer it back a day or two before the mortgage is due to be collected?

Regarding your actual query, I am not sure. It would probably be best to contact your mortgage lender.

InMyDreams

I wouldn't cancel your mortgage direct debit. Depending on who your mortgage is with, it *may* be possible to pay with an alternate method but you would have to ring them up and ask and it would probably be for a one-off.

I know I couldn't do it with the mortgage I currently have, but with my last one I used to ring up each month and pay with a credit card (which also got me cashback on the credit card and no I didn't pay any fees or interest for it as I paid it off in full each month) and then cancel the direct debit just for that month (once they had received my card payment). I did that every month for nearly a year (each time they told me 'just this once') before mortgaging onto my current deal with a different bank where it's no longer possible.

But I wasn't doing it to get me out of a hole, I was doing it for the credit card cashback. It absolutely would not be cheaper to pay with a credit card if you don't pay it off IN FULL each month. And this is going back two or three years so may not even be possible any more. (That said, even when I was doing it, everyone on this board told me it was impossible so do check with your provider.) At the time I was with the Abbey/Santander.

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay

collegegirl57 wrote: »

I don't always have the money in the bank on the correct day.

Ask to have your mortgage payment day moved to a date in the month when you will have the cash. If you usually get paid on the 1st but sometimes it's late by a few days then just tell them to take it out on the 10th of every month. That gives you over a week to punch the HR department when they forget to pay you on time because "Sharon was on holiday and I didn't fink you'd mind".

firstaspect

Ring up your mortgage lender and ask. I know someone I work with pays their mortgage each month by phoning up with a card rather than a DD.

luckyfool

Of course if you do it this way and are late one month you are going to seriously damage your credit score. Some lenders will not allow payment by any other method, and others increase the interest rate if you do not pay by Direct Debit. Personally I pay by Standing Order, which means I can increase and reduce overpayments whenever I want and theoretically I could move the day the payment goes out if I wanted to. Of course by doing it that way I have the responsibility to keep an eye on what my contractual payment is and to make sure I pay at least that amount each month.