Mortgage Payment Difficulties?
If you are experiencing difficulties paying or anticipate you might please talk to us – we are here to help
There are all sorts of reasons why people can end up with financial worries and the cost of living has now become another concern for many of us.
It can be tempting to ignore the problem and carry on as normal. However, we are here to help so it’s best to talk to us as soon as possible – even if you haven’t yet missed a payment.
How to contact us:
Our friendly team can be contacted on 0800 783 2367, or at customersupport@teachersbs.co.uk - they have years of experience helping our members.
What will happen when I speak with you?
Don’t worry – calling us won’t mean we add notes to your credit file. We will only do that if we both agree an arrangement to help you. If you do go into arrears a record will appear on your credit history and could affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.
We will talk to you about your current circumstances and look at what options we can offer to support you. The first step is to complete and return to us a personal budget planner form - this will help us see what you can afford to pay.
We are signed up to the Mortgage Charter so can offer you flexible, short term support if you are having temporary payment difficulties.
We will also let you know of other agencies that might be able to help you such as StepChange, your local Citizens Advice, or the Department for Work and Pensions.
We will keep in touch to make sure any arrangement made remains suitable for your circumstances.
Options we may consider for you:
Please note options marked with an * will be recorded against your credit file and could impact your ability to obtain credit in the future
Short term measures
Change the date you pay your mortgage or the way you pay it
You may find it easier if we changed your payment date for you. For example, if you currently pay on the 3rd of every month, we could change this to the 15th or the 28th of every month, which may be more suitable for you taking into consideration the date you receive your salary. Please remember that if you decide to change it to a date earlier in the month, there will be a shorter time frame between your two mortgage payments. For example, if you last paid your mortgage on the 28th of June and now wish to change to the 3rd of the month, you will be expected to make your next payment on the 3rd of July.
*Payment Holiday
You may be able to take a break from making your mortgage payments for a short period of time. We call this a payment holiday. Please remember that your payments will increase when you start paying your mortgage again, as you will not have paid any of your mortgage back and you will continue to accrue interest when you don’t pay your mortgage. We will need to make sure that the increased mortgage payments after the payment holiday are affordable for you. Please note that we are required to inform the credit reference agencies if you take a payment holiday which can impact on your ability to obtain credit in the future.
*Temporarily Change your Mortgage to Interest Only
If you currently have a repayment mortgage, which means you are paying capital and interest every month, we can change your mortgage to interest only for a short period of time. This will reduce your monthly mortgage payments.
Please remember that when the interest only period comes to an end, we will change your mortgage back to repayment. We will then recalculate your mortgage payments based on what term you have left on your mortgage at that time. As you will not have paid any of the capital back to us over this period, this will mean that your mortgage payments will go up.
Please note we are required to inform the credit reference agencies if you temporarily change your mortgage to interest only which can impact your ability to obtain credit in the future.
Temporarily change your Mortgage to Interest Only (under the Mortgage Charter)
If you have not already missed a payment and haven’t previously had a Mortgage Charter measure, we can consider this change under the Mortgage Charter for a period of 6 months. Under the Mortgage Charter this will not be reported to credit reference agencies. We will inform you if you qualify for this when reviewing your options.
Government Initiatives
The Society will consider Government Initiatives that are supporting and/or available at the time of your enquiry. Some of these are included in the options above.
Longer term measures
Reduce the interest rate being charged
If you are not currently in arrears and are on a Standard Variable Rate you may find it beneficial to consider moving onto a new discounted or fixed product.
Extend the term of your mortgage
We may be able to increase the term of your mortgage, which will reduce your monthly mortgage payments if you have a repayment mortgage. We may allow you to increase the term up to the age you plan on retiring (maximum age 70). For joint mortgage account holders, we base this on the account holder that is due to retire first. This will not have an impact on your credit file and if you find yourself in a better financial position later, we will let you reduce your mortgage term again in the future without any affordability checks. Please remember that extending the term of your mortgage, means that it will take you longer to pay back your mortgage and you will pay more interest overall.
Permanent change to Interest Only
In some circumstances we may be able to consider a request to permanently change your mortgage to interest only from a Capital and Repayment basis. This would be subject to you having an acceptable repayment strategy to repay the balance outstanding at the end of the mortgage term and meeting wider criteria for interest only mortgages. If you do not qualify for this change a temporary change to interest only may be appropriate depending on your circumstances.
Capitalisation of Arrears
If your home is worth more than the mortgage, you have been back on a firm financial footing for a material period and any arrangements with the Society have been maintained, the Society may let you add your arrears to the total amount you owe and pay it back over the lifetime of the mortgage.
*Waiving of interest and/or Capital
In very specific circumstances the Society can consider partial or full waiving of interest/capital. Specific circumstances would include situations for example where very high levels of arrears have accumulated linked to severe financial hardship outside of your control and you are looking sell your property.
Selling your Home
If you find yourself in the situation where you believe you won't be able to afford to stay in your home in the medium or long term and that you are looking to sell we can consider what options may be available to you during the sale period.
Budgeting
Budgeting is a way of looking at what money you have each month, and what you have to pay out for. Using our budget form to write these down you can start to understand how stretched your finances are or if there are some costs you could cut for the time being. The budget form will also help us understand your situation so that we can find options that’ll work best for you.
Our budget form can be found here. If you need help completing it please call us on 0800 783 2367
What you’ll need
Before you start to fill in the budget form you will need to have some information available including:
- Your bank statements
- Payslips
- Copies of gas, electricity and telephone bills
- Details of what you spend on food, clothing and travel
- The balances and payments you make on any credit cards, loans or HP arrangements
- Details of any other income or payments you make on a regular basis
When you have completed the form:
Send it to us at customersupport@teachersbs.co.uk and we will then be in touch to discuss with you how we can support you.