Change repayment mort to interest only

Grottie_2

Hi

I have a 5year fixed rate repayment mort with Nationwide - due to end May 2012, this has always been paid on time. I was made redundant in Aug 09 and have been using my redundancy to help pay towards our mortgage and bills as my husband does not earn enough to pay everything.

I recently spoke to Nationwide to see if they could help us move to interest only for a while until I find a job - which I have been trying to find for 6 months - very stressful! Nationwide said that I would have to be down to my last £1,000 before they would consider helping and looking at changing to interest only.

I think this is unfair as I do want to try and save as much as my money as possible for emergencies that crop up - house, car etc.

Our outgoings per month are £1097 - mort and bills (not inc food shopping, petrol, clothes etc ) and coming in is £1221(husbands wage and child tax and benfit), by the time we had done food shopping etc we will always be overdrawn.

Can anyone advise what I can do - or how to deal with Nationwide?

Many thanks

A stressed person

dunstonh

I think this is unfair as I do want to try and save as much as my money as possible for emergencies that crop up - house, car etc.

The problem with interest only is that it is just delaying the inevitable at worst case and just pushing future costs up later (which may still keep it unaffordable).

The FSA have told lenders that interest only should not be used as a way to make mortgages affordable. Some have not just applied to that new business but to existing business as well.

Can anyone advise what I can do - or how to deal with Nationwide?

Put your case to them and attempt to persuade them.

You may also wish to post in the debt free wannabee section as there are some very good people in there to help those with debt problems. This section is more technical about the products.

Nara

I was in the same situation as you, we have a mortgage with Nationwide and my partner was out of work 11 months after being made redundant. Luckily for us he got a good payoff so we paid 6 months normal mortgage payments, then i rang them up and said we couldn't afford to pay it anymore so they did a income/outgoing questionnaire and they said as our outgoings were more then income they would allow us interest only on a 3month basis which we had to do for about 5 months.
I actually found them to be pretty helpful, you could also ask about a payment holiday but you have to have a certain loan to value rate and it does push the payment up after its ended so not the greatest option.
I can;t remember if they asked me about any saving we had, I'm sure we had some left but it didn't seem to affect it. Also if you can claim JSA then apply for housing help, we did and the job centre paid our interest...or at least most of it when they could get it right lol! (jobcentre were a nightmare to deal with and kept mucking up the claim) but it helped, my partner only got 10p a week benefit but we were just happy to not get to behind on our mortgage and lose our home as so many others have.