Coronavirus: Mortgage payment break

If you are not able to make your mortgage payments due to coronavirus, you can apply for a 3 month break.

You can apply to either:

• take a full break from making your monthly mortgage payments, or
• make reduced payments.

If you decide a mortgage payment break is right for you, you’ll need to apply by 31 March 2021.

All payment breaks must end by 31 July 2021. If you decide a payment holiday is right for you, you need to apply by 31 March 2021.

However, if you’re newly affected by coronavirus, and you want to benefit from the full 6 months of available support, you should apply at least 7 working days before your February 2021 payment is due.

If you’ve already taken one 3 month payment holiday, you have until 31 March 2021 to apply for a second one.

After 31 March 2021, you can extend an existing payment holiday up until 31 July 2021. This is as long as:

• it doesn’t go over the 6-month payment holiday limit, and
• there are no gaps in the support.

If you’ve already had 6 months of payment support

If you’re thinking about a mortgage payment break, it’s important to understand that interest will continue to build  at your usual interest rate during the payment break.

This means that the total amount of interest you’ll pay over the term of your mortgage will go up, increasing the overall cost of your mortgage.

As a result, your monthly payments at the end of the break will be higher.

Although a mortgage payment break won’t affect your credit rating, lenders may look at other information (for example, information provided by you, or bank account information) when they decide whether to lend to you in the future.

• Change your mortgage by adding or removing someone
• Alter the length of your mortgage term, unless you are in the last month of your payment break
• Change the way you repay your mortgage, or
• Let out your property during the payment break.

Before you apply, you must have consent from everyone named on the mortgage. 

To help you complete the application, please have information about your income and outgoings to hand.

We’ll send a letter to you before your payments are due to restart. It will confirm the start month and the amount of your new payment.

If you normally pay by Direct Debit, you don’t need to do anything. We’ll collect your new payment amount. If you cancelled your Direct Debit, you’ll need to set it up again. Remember, this usually takes 2 weeks, so make sure you give yourself enough time before your next payment date.

Set up a Direct Debit

If your financial situation has improved, you could increase your monthly payments or even pay the payments missed in full. This way, you’ll pay less interest over the long term.

Making overpayments following a payment break will impact your overpayment allowance. But we’ll refund any Early Repayment Charges (ERCs) you’re charged for making up missed payments.

If you were making overpayments before taking a payment break, you’ll need to set them up again.

Find out how to set up an overpayment

Help is available if you still aren’t able to make your payments. The first step to working out a payment plan is to tell us more detail about your financial situation. That way, we’ll have the right information to call you to talk you through your options.