Published on Monday 06 April 2020 in Van News

If you're a homeowner & struggling to keep up with your mortgage payments during the Covid-19 outbreak, the best advice is to speak to your bank because they've all agreed to offer help to their customers by providing at least a 3-month mortgage holiday agreement if it's needed. If you'd like to go into that conversation a little more prepared, take a look at the information below.
What Is A Mortgage Holiday?
A mortgage holiday is simply a break in your mortgage payments for an arranged period that has to be agreed with your bank. Let's give you an example: if you have 20 years & 3 months of payments left, you'll be able to agree with your bank to not pay for 3 months & spread the cost over the next 20 years, or extend your mortgage by an extra 3 months.
Our advice is to talk to your bank to find out the terms of any mortgage holiday agreement before deciding it's the right thing to do.
REMEMBER: Do not just cancel your mortgage payments or direct debits, you must arrange a mortgage holiday with your provider. Cancelling mortgage payments without arranging a holiday with your bank will be counted as a late payment and will appear on your credit file.
Is My Bank Offering A Mortgage Holiday?
Following an agreement with the Government, all banks should be offering mortgage holidays to existing customers. Contact your bank to find out what kind of support they can offer you.
Each bank is offering different ways to facilitate a mortgage holiday from increasing the amount you pay each month after your holiday is complete, while others are simply extending your mortgage terms.
How Is My Bank Helping Arrange Mortgage Holidays?
Banks are also making it as easy as possible for customers to request mortgage holidays. For example, Vanarama team member Daryl arranged a mortgage holiday with his bank for the months of April, May & June simply by filling in an online form. It took a few moments to process before he was notified that his payments will start again in July and will only be going up by around £10-15 for the rest of his mortgage term.
Below is a table which shows the major banks offering mortgage holidays, how they are facilitating them & how to apply with links to their application pages (where possible).
Bank | Impact Of Mortgage Holiday | How To Apply |
Bank of Scotland | Increased monthly payments | |
Barclays | Longer mortgage term | |
Coventry BS | Flexible | |
Halifax | Increased monthly payments | |
HSBC | Speak to bank | |
Lloyds | Increased monthly payments | |
Nationwide | Increased monthly payments | |
NatWest | Increased monthly payments | |
NRAM | Increased monthly payments | Phone: 0330 159 4850 |
RBS | Increased monthly payments | |
Santander | Increased monthly payments |
Contact The Covid-19 Small Business Support Team For More Information
If you have any questions about mortgage holidays or any other financial support available during the Covid-19 outbreak, please call the Covid-19 Small Business Support Team for free on 0808 196 3900 (8:30am - 5:30pm, Monday-Thursday. 9am - 5pm, Friday). Or, take a look at our Covid-19 Small Business Support information hub.