Mortgage Holidays

hippobird

dunstonh wrote: »

Its a sign of the falling in society standards. Lower education standards and lower social skills including personal responsibility, respect and greed.

Gosh, what a strong response - I only asked for some advice as I have no experience of debt management. My mortgage is the only debt I have ever had - despite having been a student, gaining my masters, getting married and starting a family. Social & educational standards? Respect & greed? Really?

Joe_Bloggs

I am a Nationwide mortgage holder and I know how fussy they are about lending money. Do not get into their bad books. Spend less, skip Christmas, if necessary. It looks bad if you can't pay your mortgage commitments. They have to look into the future and if you ask for a holiday now they may suspect that the chances are that you are going to do the same on a regular basis.

If you were several years ahead of the payment schedule then there may be some leeway. This is only my personal opinion there may be other, smarter ways out of your predicament given personal experience on the various MSE fora.

J_B.

opinions4u

hippobird wrote: »

Gosh, what a strong response - I only asked for some advice as I have no experience of debt management.

Yet when asked a question like "why do you want a payment holiday?" you don't reply. So it makes it difficult for somebody to respond in a helpful way.

If the reason is "debt management" then there is no way on earth a lender will provide a payment holiday. If you can't afford a mortgage they need to manage you and your account in a very different way than simply lending you a few months mortgage payments.

Mis-sold is also a very emotive topic. It is widely used on these forums by posters who simply won't take responsibility for their own choice to borrow. In your case you want Nationwide to lend you more money. They've said no. I would hazard a guess that if I picked up one of today's newspapers I would find a story somewhere about "wreckless lending". Nationwide, it would appear, don't want to be labelled in that way.

My mortgage is the only debt I have ever had - despite having been a student, gaining my masters, getting married and starting a family. Social & educational standards? Respect & greed? Really?

The old cynic in me would suggest that you make the argument well for falling educational standards in this paragraph. But I don't know you so that would be naughty of me.

Respect: Well there is respect for a lender's decsion.

Greed: Mis-sold implies a feeling that you are after compensation for the situation you find yourself in with your mortgage.

If you are genuinely struggling to meet the mortgage commitment, I'd start of on the Debt-free Wannabe part of this forum. Even if paying the bills isn't a struggle, but you just wanted a bit of spare cash for a project, DFW can help you out by reducing outgoings and increasing income a little.

If things are getting serious then talk to your lender about things. If things are really serious then CAB or Shelter may be good ports of call - but I suspect you're not there yet.

rak2

I've read this thread and another asking about mortgage holidays and people have been saying that banks won't give one for getting your debts in order or for doing up your house.

What kind of things do they give mortgage holidays for?
Are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only?

Annisele

rak2 wrote: »

What kind of things do they give mortgage holidays for?
Are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only?

Sometimes they'll give a mortgage holiday for things like "I'm pregnant, I'm taking x months maternity leave, and then I'm going back to work".

If you pay interest only the banks are less likely to give you a mortgage holiday - at the same LTV, the bank is at more risk with an interest only mortgage than it is with a repayment, and it's consequently less likely to want to lend you more money.

hippobird

What kind of things do they give mortgage holidays for?
Are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only?[/QUOTE]

That's all I really wanted to know. I don't want a mortgage holiday to get me out of financial strife and I appreciate that it may not be the best option for me, I just don't want to be turned down for something with no clear understanding of why.
I was keen to find out what sort of customer it would be offered to as I consider myself to be a good customer with no history of financial difficulty and I was turned down.
Is it the case that mortgage holidays are only offered to those in difficulty?
Of course I respect the lenders entitlement to say no, it's just frustrating when you aren't given an explanation of the refusal.

opinions4u

rak2 wrote: »

I've read this thread and another asking about mortgage holidays and people have been saying that banks won't give one for getting your debts in order or for doing up your house.

Doing up the house would be reaosnable to me. Doing up the house when you are struggling to meet mortgage payments and will struggle more with higher payments after a "holiday" is unreasonable though.

What kind of things do they give mortgage holidays for?

It will vary from lender to lender. From the Halifax web site:

They are available for a period of between one and six months over the life of the mortgage and for a variety of reasons depending on your circumstances. These include:

• Maternity Leave
• Change of Employment
• Children's Education
• Exceptional or Unforeseen Household Expenditure
• Exceptional or Unforeseen Vehicle Expenditure
• Wedding Expenses
• Tax Bill

To qualify for a payment holiday you need to have had your mortgage for at least three months and be up-to-date on your payments.




Although we try and help as many customers are possible, there will be some cases where a payment holiday may not be available to you. These can include the following:

• If you have a second charge on your property
• If you have had previous payment holidays totalling six months
• If your loan-to-valuation exceeds our criteria

Are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only?

No.

EDIT: The Nationwide site is a little bit vague:

For mortgages reserved on or before 3 March 2010 you can apply for a payment holiday of between three and twelve months if:

• you have had your mortgage for more than one year, and
• your mortgage is less than 80% of the value of your home at the end of your payment holiday (conditions apply).

If you want to find out more information or apply for a payment holiday please call us on 08457 30 20 10.

rak2

The Nationwide is a little vague, lol.
I guess you don't know if you don't ask.

When I said are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only I was a bit vague too. I meant not if your mortgage was interest only, but if you wanted to pay them the interest for the holiday just not the capital on a repayment mortgage.
Answers probably still no, but I was aware I wasn't clear.

getmore4less

rak2 wrote: »

The Nationwide is a little vague, lol.
I guess you don't know if you don't ask.

When I said are they more likely to give you a holiday if you pay interest only I was a bit vague too. I meant not if your mortgage was interest only, but if you wanted to pay them the interest for the holiday just not the capital on a repayment mortgage.
Answers probably still no, but I was aware I wasn't clear.

I actualy think this should be the default option for those that want/need to reduce payments for whatever reason on a temporary basis

Still need to go through the justification and establish the length of the "holiday".
So rather than increase the debt by a full holiday you just defer the capital repayments for a period.

It still needs to be made clear that at the end of the holiday payments will go back to a higher level than they were before.