Mortgage payment holiday

Hootie19

I know each provider will have their own rules, and I WILL go and hunt out our documents and check, but until I have . . .

We have recently changed from a sub prime lender (having worked really hard at getting debts down/gone and generally keeping our noses clean) to a mortgage with NatWest. We did this in September last year.

It is a 12 year mortgage for £115,000 against a property valued at around £190,000.

My husband has been removed from the on-call system at work until at least the end of September. This is going to cost us around £500 a month in lost on-call payments.

Until his bank loan is repaid is 2 or 3 years time, our finances are tight (manageable, on his salary including the on-call payments) but with the loss of the on-call money it's going to be nigh on impossible.

We are looking to making as many cutbacks as possible, but we're wondering if there's any chance that we could do "something" about the mortgage.

We don't really need to stop paying the mortgage altogether, but if they would accept a reduction of, say, £300 a month until he's back on the rota again, that would be fab. Are they likely to accept this, do you think, or are payment breaks an "all or nothing" thing, generally speaking?

Obviously, our mortgage and council tax payments are our priority - really don't want to mess things up with the mortgage, especially now we are with a "normal" lender (can't think of the correct term for them), but we're really struggling to see how else to get through the next few months. (I've been to the DFW and Old Style forums and am making use of advice there already.)

Thrugelmir

Have you considered asking for the mortgage term to be extended?

This would reduce your monthly outgoings. As and when your income improves then overpayments could be made. In addition this would not impair your credit record in any way.

Hootie19

Thank you Thrugelmir for your suggestion. But at 51 and 52 years of age, we really don't want to be extending it any further if it's avoidable. That's if the provider would even consider it, given our ages. And the problems are (hopefully, anyway) only for a short period of time.