Key Post Has anyone approached their lender to reschedule their mortgage?

Brendan Burgess

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I am interested in assessing the different banks' attitude to rescheduling mortgages for those who are unemployed or about to become unemployed?

The banks official response is that they deal with each case on an individual basis.

1) Which lender?
2) When did you approach them? Before losing your job or while in arrears?
3) What length remained on your mortgage?
4) What was the Loan to value?
5) Did you ask for a payment holiday? How long did they give you?
 
permanent tsb

Last year a friend of mine paid a lump sum against his permanent tsb mortgage. When he told them recently he was going to lose his job, they told him that the lump sum was treated by permanent tsb as repayments in advance and so he does not have to make any more payments for 6 years.

I was surprised at this only to find it has already been discussed on Askaboutmoney here and permanent tsb provide the full details and a calculator [broken link removed]
 
Mr ACA took ill in September and I approached ICS about a payment holiday, to give us a bit of breathing space. They couldn't have been nicer, 3 month payment holiday agreed within 4 days - no additional repayments as I'm on lock-in with them and have reduced my term recently. Couldn't recommend the service highly enough.
 
Thanks Mrs ACA

What sort of Loan to Value had you as a matter of interest and what is the time remaining on your mortgage?

Brendan
 
Just had a mooch on wikipedia, cos I wasn't really sure how to work that out. I think it's 50% - (mortgage is approx 1/2 the value of the property) Is that right?

When I started with ICS in 2005, I had a 25 year mortgage - now down to 18yrs.
 
Someone I know who bought a house at the wrong time and fixed at the wrong time and is now in negative equity rang the PTSB re their fixed rate. They said their partner lost their job and they were in danger of going into arrears and asked to switch to variable. PTSB said no problem and no penalty despite 2 years left on fixed rate.
 
Michael

That is extraordinary. And completely at variance with the general perception of the approach of banks. But it would be in keeping with the Code of Practice on Mortgage Arrears.

How close is this friend? Are you fairly confident that the story is reliable?

Brendan
 
1) Which lender?
KBC (formerly IIB)
2) When did you approach them? Before losing your job or while in arrears?
after redundancy - no arrears
3) What length remained on your mortgage?
17 years
4) What was the Loan to value?
at the time 50% now more like 55% (falling prices)
5) Did you ask for a payment holiday? How long did they give you?
yes - no payment holiday allowed, no top-up or remortgage allowed, interest only agreed for 2 years (only allowed move to interest only once & then max 3 years).
 
The banks official response is that they deal with each case on an individual basis.

1) Which lender?
AIB
2) When did you approach them? Before losing your job or while in arrears?
Still job hunting after finishing a course, not in arrears. Just sounding out possibilities
3) What length remained on your mortgage?
15 yrs
4) What was the Loan to value?
180k
5) Did you ask for a payment holiday? How long did they give you?
They treated me with utter contempt, felt like I was in the docks of a court room! Must have been my unlucky day but person I spoke to had so little empathy or respect, I complained and got a detailed email, but the whole tone was one of being talked down to, rather than a customer paying a lot of money. I will definitely change lenders when I have an opportunity. They gave me a list of paperwork to fulfil before considering it and also told me that I was in arrears when I was not. Shame on AIB! I hate them.
 
Brendan said:
How close is this friend? Are you fairly confident that the story is reliable?
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Very close. It is reliable in that this is the person's understanding of what's agreed but as the person is somewhat dizzy in relation to financial matters it may not be the bank's understanding. I'll make further inquiries when the opportunity arises.
 
Thanks Michael

I presume that it would be the practice to send a letter confirming such an agreement. I am surprised by it and if ptsb deny later that this is what they agreed, I would be inclined to believe ptsb rather than your friend, unless it was in writing.

Brendan
 
Brendan said:
I would be inclined to believe ptsb rather than your friend, unless it was in writing.
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Me too. When they put a deposit on a house I knew that was the end of the property bubble. I advised them to ask for a €50k reduction on the house price to complete, and be prepared, ultimately, to forfeit their €8k deposit if necessary. Unfortunately they were disinclined to do so.
 
While not a redundancy situation, I approached NIB to reduce my monthly repayments from €1100 to €800 to free up some cash flow. I'm currently on their tracker, and they are refusing to budge, unless I move off the tracker. I suspect they are making little or nothing on the tracker now, so they are doing everything they can to push people onto other products.

1) Which lender? NIB
2) When did you approach them? Before losing your job or while in arrears? No arrears, always overpaid mortgage in the good years
3) What length remained on your mortgage? 8 years
4) What was the Loan to value? less than 20%
5) Did you ask for a payment holiday? How long did they give you? Didn't look for this.
 
MandaC,
While not doubting your story that just does not seem right, there are standard forms now in FA branches to apply for 6 mth break. I would advise your friend to either go back to her branch or contact Credit Management in Head Office directly to discuss her case.
 
Brendan, just to be clear FA dont hand the forms out over the counter but they are there for use in conjunction with a meeting to discuss all options where there are difficulties. Genuine cases are not usually refused, in cases where there are underlying problems possibly going back before the recent credit crunch then sometimes a different line is taken. LTV is also very important.
 
Recently had to request a repayment holiday for my parents mortgage - my father had a heart attack, is unable to work for at least 6 months. I work in mortgages so have plenty of experience in dealing with banks, I arranged their mortgage 2 years ago - had trouble initially getting the bank (EBS) to agree to anything but they finally agreed to 3 months interest only.

1) Which lender?
EBS
2) When did you approach them? Before losing your job or while in arrears?
Day after dad was taken into hospital - no arrears ever on mortgage

3) What length remained on your mortgage?
11 years

4) What was the Loan to value?
33%

5) Did you ask for a payment holiday? How long did they give you
Payment holiday of 3 months requested this was declined - 6 months interest only was then requested - 3 months was eventually granted.

Found EBS very difficult to deal with, finally managed to get one girl who was actually competent and got it sorted for me but it took almost a month of them messing me around.

Will be going back to them in March to try and get the interest only period extended. If they refuse then to be honest my parents will cancel the direct debit and will send them monthly cheques for the interest only amount until the house can be sold and mortgage repaid.

In the past couple of months I have also arranged for a client's mortgage to be converted to interest only for 2 years and the term extended, with no problems (KBC are the lender in this case - there were no arrears)
 
I have also arranged for a client's mortgage to be converted to interest only for 2 years and the term extended
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If you switch a loan to interest only, then the term is effectively indefinite.

The repayments for the next two years will be the same, whether there are 5 years or 20 years left on the mortgage.

I do appreciate that at the end of the interest only term, the longer the period the smaller the repayment.

Brendan
 
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