Asking mortgage co. if can have payment holiday or go interest only

[titchy]

Anyone know if we ask the mortgage company if they would consider either of these options whether this would show up on any credit reference searches?

It shouldn't if they agree it, as you would still be meeting the agreed repayments

If you mean will the request show up, no it wont.

We've done this a couple of times over the years. Only for three months. And I'm sure it makes not difference to credit reference searches.

Phew thanks - it's an option then

It does depend on the lender though. We had a cash flow issue a few months ago that we knew would take a couple of months to resolve. The bastard HSBC wouldn't let us have a payment holiday or go interest only for 2 months, all they would do was let us borrow an additional £5k (which was far more than we needed, we have a great credit rating and have never missed a payment on anything, and can you tell I'm still bitter?!)

HSBC dont offer repayment breaks, its not a feature of their mortgages so the answer would always be no. Its worth checking if this is a feature of your mortgage before you ring.

Well Nationwide does as a feature of their mortgages. So that's useful but I thought most lenders did if you were ahead and paid a bit more each month. But they should be sympathetic to people. HSBC sound horrible. That's so mean of them Custard.

We're with NW so hope that's true Mary! Just didn't want to be penalised longer term just for asking .....

It's probably an option that you have as part of your mortgage agreement. If it's not, then you can always try and agree a holiday with the mortgage company. They want thier money and giving you a payment holiday helps you to pay them, they will usually agreed.

Any agreed changes will not show up as anything negative on credit searches though some companies in this area do have details of payments made, when etc but it would not be 'flagged' in any way as a negative issue because if it's agreed, it becomes part of your mortgage agreement.

hope that helps

Ask. The worst they can say is "no". What you mustn't do is just miss a payment.

We are also with Nationwide. They have a central number to call, press X for mortgages etc. Just ring (give your account number) and ask .... "if I wanted to do X or Y what are my options?" You dont have to say why you are considering this. Then note down the info & say you will get back to them. That way you get your answer and can decide what's best way forward.

Yes if you have previously overpaid then with NW you can take that/those overpayments back but I doubt that is what you are asking. Even without overpayments over the years with my NW mortgage I have taken two payment holidays of 9-12 months each, changed from repayment to interest only for four years, changed back to repayment AND lengthened the term of the loan (to reduce monthly payments). These options got us though time of work to care for very unwell family member, redundancy and extended mat leave for two babies. I didnt have to say why and there is no record of anything on a credit file as I always made the agreed payments.

I now have an overpayment on my mortgage that would see me through a crisis but didnt then and I remain loyal to NW who had the flex to do all of the above. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Lloyds TSB told us we could only take 2 months and that we couldn't take another break for the term of the mortgage or we could go interest only for a year.

Thank you all. We're just exploring options at the moment and have a few months before we need to do anything - so hopefully DH will have found gainful employment by then. If not it would be useful to know how we can reduce our hideous mortgage outgoings, but obviously don't want to be penalised long term!