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Coronavirus and your mortgage

What is a mortgage payment holiday?

If you’re worried about paying your mortgage during the coronavirus outbreak, a payment holiday enables you to pause your monthly payments for a temporary period. Following revised guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), payment holidays are now also referred to as ‘payment deferrals’. So, you may see, or hear, this phrase used elsewhere.

Although no monthly payments will be due during your payment holiday, interest will continue to accrue and will be added to your loan balance. This will result in an increase to your monthly payments when they restart at the end of the payment holiday and in the total cost of your borrowing. A payment holiday will be a variation of your mortgage agreement with us and no other terms or conditions will change.

If you’re able to afford any payments during your payment holiday, even if they’re less than your current monthly payment, we encourage you to make them. If you do, it will reduce the impact on your future monthly payments and total cost of borrowing at the end of the payment holiday. If something changes and you would like to shorten your payment holiday, you can contact us to arrange to restart your mortgage payments.

Although taking a payment holiday won’t negatively impact your credit file, keep in mind that lenders may take into account other information when making future lending decisions.

 

See how a payment holiday could impact future mortgage payments 

You can use our calculator to see the likely change to your monthly payments and total cost of borrowing by taking a payment holiday of up to 3 months. You’ll need:

  • your current remaining loan balance.
  • interest rate.
  • remaining term.

These can be found on your annual statement or by logging on to Online Banking. 

Use our calculator now

It’s important to note that taking a mortgage payment holiday is only suitable for short-term financial concerns. If you consider yourself to be in long term financial difficulty and would like to speak with someone please call us on 03 456 100 193 (lines open Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm and Sat 8am to 4pm). Please don’t delay in having a conversation with us about this, we have dedicated people who can help.

Who can apply for a mortgage payment holiday?

We want to provide help to everyone who needs it, and particularly those who need it most urgently. So we can do that, please only apply if:

  • you have an existing first direct mortgage.
  • you’ve been financially impacted, or expect to be financially impacted by coronavirus.
  • everyone else named on the mortgage has agreed to applying for a payment holiday.
  • you’re aware that interest will continue to be charged during the payment holiday, that the total amount you owe us on your mortgage will increase and that your monthly payments may increase when the payment holiday comes to an end.

Managing your payments at the end of your payment holiday

We’ll write to you before your payment holiday ends and explain what your new payments will be.

If you’re unable to restart your payments at the end of your payment holiday, we’ll let you know what other options are available. These may include extending your pament holiday by another 3 months. However, the options available may depend on your personal circumstances and teh date your payment holiday ends. 

Frequently Asked Questions