YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.

Scrabble pieces forming the phrase 'ask for help'

I’m in financial difficulty

Please remember seeking advice will NOT affect your credit score.

Thousands of borrowers receive help from their lenders every year. We understand life does not always go to plan and that circumstances can change, that is why we are here to help. This is much easier than you might think, the most important thing is to talk to us, let us know what is causing your difficulties, how long it is likely to last and your current budget situation.

Please do not cancel your mortgage payments without talking to us, missed payments could affect your credit rating and we could charge fees for communications we send.

Worried about making your mortgage payments?

You may have seen media coverage about a new Mortgage Charter which lenders can optionally sign up to. We are not signed up yet, but we are able to offer equivalent terms to you. Please see the information below.

Help under the Mortgage Charter

Who is eligible?:

    • Borrowers who are not in arrears.
    • Borrowers who have capital and interest (repayment) mortgages.
    • Borrowers whose mortgage is residential (the mortgage is on the property that you live in – the scheme is not available for Buy to Let mortgages).

What support is available?:

    Without an assessment of affordability, we may be able to:
    • Temporarily reduce the capital element of your repayment to interest only repayments for up to 6 months.
    • Extend the term of your mortgage up to retirement age. The term can be reverted to the original term within 6 months.

Taking either of these options will not affect your credit score and we will provide you with an illustration of the effect on your mortgage to help you decide if it is right for you, which you will need to accept, before the changes take place.

If you have already missed payments on your mortgage

If you are worried about paying your mortgage or have already missed a payment give us a call as soon as you can, talking to us can help to prevent the situation becoming harder to manage. You can call us on 01768 863675 or email support@penrithbs.co.uk

Short Term Options

We may be able to:

    • Change the date or how you make your mortgage payments to us.
    • Reduce or suspend your payments for a little while, to help you to a point where you can start full payments again. This will show as arrears on your credit record and we will need to make an arrangement for you to repay missed payments once your situation has improved. We will continue to charge interest on your mortgage even when payments are temporarily suspended.
    • If you have a capital and interest (repayment) mortgage, we may be able to accept interest only payments for a short period. This will reduce your payments as you will not be paying back any of the original amount borrowed during this time. This unpaid amount will need to be repaid in the future and we will discuss this with you.
Longer Term Options

We may be able to:

    • If you are eligible we could consider switching your mortgage to a different mortgage product, with a lower interest rate, which would reduce your monthly payments. Early repayment charges may apply and we will provide you with all the information you need to decide whether this is right for you.
    • If you have a capital and interest (repayment) mortgage, we could consider extending the term of your mortgage to reduce your payments. This would mean that you would have your mortgage for longer and you would pay more interest over the term of your mortgage.

We will always provide information about any of the options and the effect this may have on your mortgage. We will ensure any arrangements that may be offered to repay any shortfall, are affordable to you.

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Please remember seeking advice will NOT affect your credit score, the sooner you access debt advice the more options could be available to you help deal with your situation. The government sponsored Moneyhelper can direct you to a debt advisor straight away. We have added a handy QR code here which will take you directly to the MoneyHelper website.

Debt advice providers do not share customer information with credit referencing agencies and will keep all information confidential.