Covid 19 Lender Hardship Links
Over the coming months many of us will be experiencing financial hardship due to the Covid-19 crisis. Lenders have re-assured the broker industry that any arrangements made prior to missing payments or going into arrears should not affect your credit file moving forward.
It is important to speak to your lender to investigate the options available to you before you miss a payment or go into arrears to ensure your credit file is not impacted into the future.
If your lender asks you to consider fixing your loan, it is important to ask if repayment holidays are available on the fixed rate product and whether fixing will impact the flexibility of your loan. If you are unsure, please call your broker from our team at Right Choice to discuss further.
Below are links to many lenders and their Covid-19 policies and updates to assist you. We will update this list as more information becomes available.
At Right Choice Mortgage we can still assist you with any lending requirements. We are operating via video conferencing and have access to a number of digital platforms to enable us to continue operating in this changed environment.
DEFERRING YOUR PAYMENTS. What is a Mortgage Payment Holiday and how will it affect your loan long term?
Most lenders are offering a mortgage payment holiday for those effected by Covid-19. What this means is you will not need to make payments on your loan for the agreed time. The interest will still be charged to your loan each month during the mortgage payment holiday period. There are two different ways your loan could be treated once repayments start up again and that depends on the lender.
Option 1: - Once your mortgage holiday period is over and you are making repayments again your repayments will be recalculated to ensure your loan is still paid off in the originally approved amount of years. Therefore, your loan repayments will increase after the mortgage holiday period to ensure that you still will pay your home off in the approved period.
Option 2:- Your repayments will remain the same and the lender will extend your loan term by the amount of months that you had the repayment holiday. Each lender does have a different policy and they may vary.
Please ensure you ask your lender what their specific policy is when you are speaking with the hardship team and applying for your mortgage holiday. It is important to know and understand the long term implications if you choose to defer your repayments with your lender.
If you are still earning income and your employment has not been affected, continuing repayments as normal may be the best option for you to ensure your repayments or loan term aren't affected in the future.
We are more than happy to talk to you about the pro's and con's of all of your options so that you can make an informed decision that suits you and your circumstance the best.