Mortgage Payment Holiday - Red Letter for missed payment!!!

Mayoui

Hi i applied for the payment holiday when it was announced, heard nothing. I followed this up with a phone call 2wks ago and was told this would be processed and to contact my bank to arrange for the payment to be suspended. After 6hrs of getting through to Barclays it appeared they couldn't suspend it and the only thing they could do was cancel the DD. They put a note on there explaining why etc. as i was a bit dubious about this for obvious reasons. 2wks later after this (and STILL no contact from my mortgage provider whatsoever) i have received a letter stating my mortgage balance is overdue as i have missed a payment. Unbelievable. You'd assume thy would put 2 and 2 together. As if life isn't stressful enough at the moment. I just can't get though to them to explain and to discuss. Any ideas please? I have never missed a mortgage payment in my life and do not want to be flagged as a non-payer. This is serious stuff. 

bradders1983

You will just have to keep trying on the phone. Mistakes do happen, you know. 

And in any case, even if it takes you a week to get through on busy lines, whats the rush? Your house isnt getting repossessed in a week is it. And even if the missed payment has been reported to credit reference agencies by now, it can easily be rectified. 

jfinnie

It sounds like either you were talking to someone at your mortgage company who didn't understand direct debits (maybe someone drafted in due to huge demand with little training) or perhaps you misunderstood them.  It isn't possible for a bank that you have an account with to suspend a direct debit payment - the only option you have is to cancel it.  Only the company requesting funds from an account (ie your mortgage company) can suspend requests for funds from your account.  
I would have thought the red letter was generated automatically when the mortgage co tried to take your payment and failed; if your holiday request wasn't processed yet there wasn't 2+2 to add together - it will just have come straight out of an automated system that sees a failed payment that was due.
I'd be tempted not to worry about it too much for now.  The banks are going to be rammed for the forseeable with the double whammy of being down on staff due to shielding or symptoms, and up on enquiries.  There will be tens if not hundreds of thousands in similar situations.  Nothing is going to happen to you or your home in the coming weeks so it really isn't worth getting upset over, and credit records can be rectified if it gets that far.

Mayoui

Thanks @bradders1983 and @jfinnie. Appreciate the 'common sense' view. Sometimes you need to take a step back and i guess i didn't . 

beelzebomb

If it's any consolation, I'm in a similar boat with HSBC - applied in March as unable to pay, and it's now nearly June. I suspect a mixture of incompetence due to excess workload, combined (in some cases) with doing nothing in the hope that the customer will just shut up and find the money somewhere before they are forced to respond. Keep pushing via email, telephone and letter, then if you need to make an official complaint, you've evidence to back up what you say.