Coronavirus Mortgage Payment Holidays

24/03/20

The government has asked UK lenders to offer a 3-month mortgage payment holiday facility to borrowers whose ability to meet their mortgage payments may be impacted by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.  

If you wish to consider a mortgage payment holiday, you should contact your lender directly, who will then decide if you qualify.

It is very important to check with your lender, prior to asking for a mortgage payment holiday, if making use of the facility would adversely affect your credit-worthiness, perhaps requesting an email on the point, so you have a permanent record of their answer.

The governments Money Advice Service (MAS) website is extremely unhelpful on this point as it has contradictory information on the issue of your credit rating being affected or not.

Under the section "Coronavirus and mortgage payment holidays" MAS states:

"The first step will be to contact your lender and not everyone will be granted a payment holiday. There will be a fast track approval process in place, so you should get a quick decision although any unpaid interest will still need to be paid back, individual credit ratings should not be affected."

A few paragraphs below, in the section "Cons of a mortgage holiday" MAS states:

"Even if your lender agrees to this temporary solution, your credit file will be affected. This in turn could affect your ability to get credit in the future."