Payment "HOLIDAY" on our mortgage...

teresa_i

Dear Moneysavers! I am new to this site and this is my first post, so I hope I'm doing it right....
I had a mortgage that offered me a 'payment holiday'. The Bank concerned (mention no names but it was a large one) sent a leaflet entitled: “A simple solution to the Christmas Cash conundrum – take a break from your mortgage”. It sounded perfect! So myself and my husband signed up to it for a 3 month break back in December 2001 and unfortunately again in February 2005. It was only later when we changed mortgages that we received a statement with the mortgage interest added to it!! It was thousands more as we had an Endowment mortgage!

When I wrote to complain they said that within the application form for the 2005 payment holiday were the terms and conditions of the arrangement - on page 2! It mentioned there the Contractual Monthly Payment due during said period would still be owed, advising that this would be added to the overall mortgage balance, subsequently incurring interest.

They also told us that the mailing we received from them was for "informative" purposes only, to advise
us of the options available to us, should we wish to accept it!. They went on further to say that within the letters sent it detailed the "Payment Holiday available to us as an option" and that "nowhere within said letter were
customers advised to accept the incentive being offered!!" Really?? I am flabbergasted that they should say this! But what other offers were being offered to us at the time? Without a proper mortgage review and being mailed a month before Christmas we feel it was a targeted campaign to entice customers to take up this offer. The complaint we have is that it was mis-sold to us as it was never fully explained that it was not a BREAK nor a HOLIDAY (ref Oxford dictionary term for break “a gap/an interval” and holiday “a period of recreation”).

Unfortunately, my complaint was not upheld by the Ombudsman in 2015. Has anybody else had this issue. OR has anyone won a case against a Bank for this "issue". They should have been more clear about what a 'holiday' meant. I look forward to hearing from you out there.

Head_The_Ball

If I understand you correctly, you thought that a 'payment holiday' meant that your account would be credited with the payments as if they had been made.

That isn't the case and frankly, you need to be very financially naive to think it is.

A payment holiday gives you a break from making payments but you still owe the money.

You have simply deferred those payments to a later date. Surely that is obvious.

Did you really think that a bank would twice let you off three months payments?

Perhaps you should ask for this thread to be moved to the Mortgages forum although I think the experts there will say much the same as I and the poster above have said.

Dakota_Deville

Dear OP
No offence to you at all let me be clear on that as I fully disagree with your post.
I lost a lot in 2007/8 crash and whos fault was it, it was mine.
Those that bleat on about being misold this, that and the other, I say its your fault as no one twisted your arm.
Sorry that is how I feel.

teresa_i

No sorry I didn't think that I would be 'credited' in some way when I was on the payment "holiday" but naively I didn't realise that I would be charged thousands of pounds for the privilege. I wish they hadn't targeted me as I didn't understand the concept - until as I explained it was printed in black and white on a statement summary when we changed mortgages....

Innys1

The Ombudsman must have been provided with a document signed by you highlighting that interest was still to be charged. Otherwise, it would have just been your word against the bank's and you'd have won.

If you can't remember signing that document, well - that's not the bank's fault.

ariarnia

A first post on the forum and the person scrolls all the way past all the other sub-boards (which would be visible before deciding to register), including the mortgage advice board, to come to discussion time to ask this. Interesting.

No. You should have read the terms and conditions in full before signing anything.

A flyer is a promotional tool to tell a customer of an offer available. The terms of the offer are written in a separate (and more wordy) document which made up part of the application form, which you signed. You chose to sign something without reading it.

You were not told (I assume) by an employee of your mortgage company that taking a payment holiday would not incur any costs, and you were provided with the information on what the costs would be - so you were given the information and you were not lied to. How is that miss-selling?

trollopscarletwoman

Only one way for interest rates to go and that's up.

If you can overpay..........

peachyprice

You put yourself in 3 months of arrears, not once but twice. What did you think would happen to those arrears? Did you think they would just get written off?

Marvel1

Irving ever thought about taking a payment holiday, I would read it's terms what it involved first.

teresa_i

Nope. I never thought that... Just that it would be added onto the end of the mortgage. We live and learn. For the bank to turn around n say they sent me an eye catching leaflet for "information" - they got me on that one - hook, line 😂😂😂

Rosemary7391

I don't know how endowment mortgages work, but I have a repayment mortgage and I'd always assumed interest would be added as normal during a payment holiday. I'd certainly expect it to cost!