Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Original poster

you don't have to pay your mortgage while on maternity leave - AIBU to want to shout about it?!!

161 replies

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 14:33

AIBU to want to shout this from the rooftops so more people know about this?!

Many mortgage providers let you have a mortgage holiday, no questions asked, while you're on maternity.

I had no idea about this, I found out by accident as I rang my mortgage provider (Halifax) to ask about something else and the nice man at the other end told me.

It made so much difference to us to simply not pay the mortgage for 6 months after DS was born.

I suspect a lot of mums go back to work earlier that they would otherwise because of the pressure of bills, and would have a much easier time being a new mum if only they knew about they didn't have to pay the mortgage.

Not all mortgage companies do this I don't think, but they don't make a big deal out of it - yours might well do without you knowing about it.

HTH someone!

OP posts:

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 16:29

oops i meant interest only of course!

However I can assure you I have a good grip of my finances!

OP posts:

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 16:44

Agreed my title sounds like everyone can do it, but anyone actually reading the thread should understand the detail I hope.

And no it won't be the right thing to do for everyone, but it will be for some and I just want to make people aware of it as it helped us massively.

If you're not in the position where you have to go back to work to make ends meet then great, but if you are this could enable you to spend a few more precious months with your little one.

OP posts:

SardineQueen · 04/05/2012 17:01

That sounds like it would be very helpful to a lot of people. Losing that much wage when you are on mat leave can be a struggle especially the last 3 months!

It would have been nice if I had known about this possibility when I had my children

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 17:06

"Ours only do payment holidays of one month per year and to get this you have to pay extra for the other 11 months." mine has some such arrangement for mortgage holidays if you request them usually.

But they had a list with about 5 situation on it (I forget what the others are, sorry!) where you can have a mortgage holiday no questions asked, and maternity is one of those.

OP posts:

Kayano · 04/05/2012 17:08

Just not worth it IMO. I knew about it having worked in a bank and a building society.

TalHotBlond · 04/05/2012 17:08

I'd have done it too if I'd known about it.

Teeb · 04/05/2012 17:10

I think if you can go into it with all of the finances spelled out to you clearly and you understand the implications, it could work for some people. But we come from a culture of 'buy now pay later' consumerism where a lot of people don't understand the full reality of the pay later part.

I'm glad it's worked out well for you though and you had the extra time as a couple with your newborn.

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 17:10

Maybe not for you Kayano, everyone has different circumstances.

But for us it mean DP could be at home for two months at the beginning, and I got about 6 months more at home with my new baby than I would have otherwise.

That's worth it in my book!

OP posts:

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 17:13

"Financially the best thing for the vast majority of people is to pay the mortgage off as fast as possible thereby saving years of interest."

Well yes it has added money to our mortgage. But it's money I plan to pay while working full time, when DS is older, not while at home on £120 a week or whatever it was!

If you only look at the money then no one should do it. But if your decision to return to work is based on your ability to pay your mortgage, and you'd rather stay at home - and this is the case for many people - then buying a payment holiday by adding an extra 6 months to your mortgage could be worth considering!

Or at least knowing about, which is the point of this thread.

OP posts:

PicaK · 04/05/2012 17:18

Paying a mortgage off as fast as possible is great - so long as there aren't financial penalties attached to your mortgage for doing that.

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 17:21

Don't forget also that your mortgage isn't forever. I've changed my provider every three years.

Any extra fees I've incurred may well be balanced out by shopping around to get a good deal next time the fixed period is up. You can be good about paying your mortgage but if you're sticking with the same provider and not shopping around you could be losing money that way too!

OP posts:

Original poster

threeleftfeet · 04/05/2012 18:39

I hope this thread is useful to some about to be new mums!

Perhaps I should have posted in pregnancy? Just thought AIBU would reach lots of people!

OP posts:

SardineQueen · 04/05/2012 19:14

Try pregnancy you might get a better response over there!

Longtalljosie · 04/05/2012 19:26

The thing is, the OP isn't saying everyone should do it, just that they should know about it!

Northernlurker · 04/05/2012 19:39

Something else everybody should know is that the mortgage market has changed. Mortgages are not as easy to get as they were 10 years ago and generally speaking the amounts available to borrow have dropped whilst the deposit required has gone up. The OP has made for her the right decision of not paying for a few months and of going interest only for however long. I'm sure she's got her head round that but before anybody reading this does the same it's vital you try and get your head around the potential long term effects and tbh if you want to move at any point soon I would say it's in your interests to have paid down your loan as much as possible to boost your equity and thereby your position in a tough market. Don't take it for granted that you will be able to borrow as much as you want at a rate you like. It's not necessarily true anymore.

marriedinwhite · 04/05/2012 19:50

I am ancient so very old fashioned. Having babies isn't always predictable, plans don't always work out as expected. Isn't it more sensible to save up before you have a baby to cover most of the mortgage payments? If you can't afford to save, perhaps you should delay the baby until you can afford to support a family. thinks of daft colleague whining about having to come back to work when baby was five months old when she had spent £22,000 on a wedding less than a year before the baby was born

Flisspaps · 04/05/2012 19:53

You could have posted this 6 months ago, we've taken a 1 month payment holiday and are now not eligible for a maternity holiday

Floggingmolly · 04/05/2012 19:54

I'm baffled as to why you took a mortgage holiday to enable your dp to take two months off work, simply to avoid being on your own with the baby
I hope it doesn't come back to bite you on the arse.

BoboksAndCot · 04/05/2012 20:00

Halifax wouldn't give us a payment holiday for my maternity leave, we didn't have sufficient equity in the house.

Mishy1234 · 04/05/2012 20:04

I didn't know you could do this. It certainly is an option and of course one which should be looked into carefully.

I was able to take about 15 months both times and consider myself very fortunate to have been able to do so. I would have found it extremely tough to have returned to work in under a year. If we'd been forced to, it would definitely have been something we would have considered to cover a year off.

SardineQueen · 04/05/2012 20:21

Over the term of a mortgage - a couple of decades generally, taking a couple of months of mortgage payments is not going to mean the sky will fall in

If the woman is the main earner, or earns a significant wage for the family, then months of having her salary reduced to £100 a week and then nothing is of course difficult to cover. The cost of saving up her salary over that period is potentially more than the deposit for a house. I was on a good salary when I had DD1, DH earnt much less than me, saving up the best part of £40K in order to have a baby sounds unreasonably cautious! The fact of being able to reduce your outgoings while your incomings are reduced by the fact of minimal maternity pay makes perfect sense to me.

I really don't understand why the OP is getting so much stick here.

reallypissedoffhouseseller · 04/05/2012 20:23

Floggingmolly, that's a really unpleasant thing to say. I wouldn't have had a baby if I'd had to be at home alone after 2 weeks. DH and I were both at home for a while with DS and it made a massive difference: I wasn't prepared to contemplate being at home alone all day with a tiny baby, so I would have had to go back to work straight away otherwise.

SardineQueen · 04/05/2012 20:27

Some people are really unpleasant, unfortunately, houseseller.

Such is life.

I had DH at home for 4 weeks both times which was great - more would have been nice obviously!

Coconutty · 04/05/2012 20:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Aribura · 04/05/2012 20:31

I actually really disagree with this. Get to not pay because of a lifestyle choice? Why us and not Bob who wants to go on extended vacation or something?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7