Struggling paying bills

binnie

I lost my job in January 2011 and just do Ebay as self employed.
I don't earn enough to cover all my bills and even though I am up to date with everything up to now, I wondered what would happen if I missed paying a months mortgage to the HSBC.
This is my biggest expense which comes out of my account.
I am married and my husband pays two more mortgages we have, plus most of the bills and he has no spare money left.
Do the banks let you take a payment holiday for a month or so and add it onto the remainder?
It's such a shame as we only have 5 years left on this mortgage then it's all done.
I am trying so hard to get a job, I must have applied to about 50-60 companies since beginning of Feb. it's so demoralising.

dimbo61

So do you have 3 parts to your mortgage or do you own 3 properties ?
If you have alot of equity in the property could you not ask your lender if you can go interest only for say 12 months
Speak to your lender in the morning but you need to look at all your spending and have a look at the debt free board
Good luck in the job hunting can the benefits people help with covering the mortgage interest for a while

diable

3 mortgages?

binnie

We have three mortgages on one property.
One finishes in 2013, the other 2014, and the one I pay 2016.
My husband pays two from his account and I pay the one at £468 per month.
I will ring them tomorrow and see if they can come up with any suggestions for us.

binnie

diable wrote: »

3 mortgages?

Yes 3 mortgages.
We had 3 endowments and then cashed them in years ago as they weren't performing well. We then went onto a variable rate and did it over the same terms so we can pay it off quicker.
We had plans to retire at 50 at one point (We are both 49 now). But it's all gone wrong for the time being.
One of the mortgages was to consolidate debts.

dimbo61

Your far to young to retire at 50 and you would be bored in weeks so you still have plenty of time to get rid of the debt.
peak to the CAB ( just give them a ring to book an appointment )
You cant even pick up a pension at 50 now as age raised to 55!!

binnie

We could have retired at 50 if the governement hadn't have put the age up to 55.
My husband has been paying loads into his works pension since he was 17 or so and paid AVC's so he could retire at 50.
We were planning on moving to Spain if that had happened and would have paid all our mortgage off.
But then of course things went wrong, so it will now hopefully be in 5-6 more years.
We wouldn't have been bored as we both have hobbys and maybe I would have done a little part time job.
Anyway i rung HSBC up this morning to go on an interest only mortgage for the one that I pay and they are looking into for us for 6 months.
The thing is I do Ebay and they are finding it hard to consider as a job, even though I pay tax for it.
They want to see my incomings and outgoings on ebay, but I don't take an actual wage. I just colelct the money in and use it to pay all the bills from my account and then buy more stock if I can afford it to sell and earn more.
I have submitted all my tax returns for the last 3 years and they wanted to see the ebay money going into my bank.
We shall see what they say.

SilverSix

I'm not that experienced with mortgages but I know my father and his partner had payment holidays/grace periods on their mortgage. If you've overpaid then some lenders will let you underpay. It will depend on the lender, it's an opportunity for them to make more cash if you think about it. I take it you don't have MPI? (Mortgage protection insurance?)

binnie

I don't have mortgage protection no. I voluntarily left my job as there was a threat of sacking me for time off with illness for depression. But thats by the by now.
Plus I do Ebay and one minute they acknowledge that I am working when they want money off me, then when I want to reduce payments to them, they won't acknowledge Ebay as an income :mad:
I've submitted all my income from ebay and my tax returns for them to look at. They will soon see I don't earn enough.:p
Thanks for all your replies.