going to fall behind with NR together mortgage

[madnskint]

hello
I am currently in a panic concerning my together mortgage with Northern Rock.
here is a brief outline of the problems;

1.we are currently earning substantially less than we were when we took out the mortgage (change of jobs, the cost of travel became to high).

2. we have cut back everything to the bare minimum on outgoings and still can not realistically afford monthly payments of £975. and have stupidly been using cap one and Vanquis cards to pay for food petrol etc, so know total outgoings are even more. Also ludicrous amounts of bank charges from Halifax which left us unable to make a mortgage payment for May (am currently awaiting reply from them with regards to claiming back charges).

although we are not currently in arrears with Nr I will be if I don't make this months payment (I have till the end of this month) which seem impossible. If we (wife and two kids) are to eat and get to work. I did phone them at the end of last month as soon as I realised that I could not make the direct debit payment for may and the woman I spoke to said it was ok just cancel dd and try to make payment by end of this month.

If I explain to them about us both earning less than when we took on the mortgage are they likely to take some form of action against us for not telling them of change of circumstances?

Do you think that as we are not currently in arrears that we would be able to get some form of reduced repayment for a period of time until we get ourselves back on our feet, (we are both currently studying and when qualified will/ should be earning more) and if so how do we go about this?.

After reading some of the posts with regards to people loosing there homes it just puts us in more of a panic as all these things seem just around the corner.

any help would be much appreciated.
thanks for reading

Madnskint

[OLIVE.FAMILY]

Hi there

Sorry to hear about your predicament. I am sure somebody more in the know will be along soon. Thsi is what I would do though.

With regards to the mortgage there are usually two things you can do.
1 See if you can get a payment holiday. This is only a short term fix by may help you get things back ubder control

2 See if you can go interest only. This can sometimes reduce your payments by a few hundred I believe.

As far as your other credit cards are concerened they are NOT priority so it is easier to reduce payments on these without loosing your house. See if youn can offer token payments to these people whilst you sort yourself out. When I say token payments I mean like sill payments £5 or something like that. This will mean you cant use cards for a bit so it may be woth while doing one last shop to tye you over.

This is just just stuff I have learnt along my way. If I had known this myself a few years ago then I wouldnt be in the situation I have been in.

The most important thing to remeber is that unsecured debt IS NOT priority. Mortgage council tax gas and electric are No1

Hope this helps

Olives

[madnskint]

Thanks Olive, I did think about asking if I could go to an interest only for a while but im not sure if they would allow me to, I did also (probably stupidly) think of trying to get a loan to pay off the other cards loans etc, but only if the repayments would be lower than what i am paying out at the moment, I know it sounds daft but I thought if it freed up some money at the end of each month it might help.
We already have a £760 electric bill, not through not paying it but because (even after chasing them for a bill) they did not issue a bill for about seven months! and are know saying we need to pay an extra £60 a mnth to clear it which we cant really afford.
We were also supposed to have a payment holiday next month but that will be cancelled out when and if I can pay this month, it means we wont have arrears, but also means we cant use the money to pay off other bills cards etc, which was part of the idea of us getting a payment holiday in the first place, the only other option they gave us was to miss the payment and pay extra every mnth (about £300 extra over three mnths) which is not possible.
we managed to pay the council tax this month, but only just. It just seems that everything comes in one go, and I am determined not to bury my head in the sand which is a huge temptation at the moment....been there...done that doesn't work.

do you think that they would accept if i asked to go interest only for a while, even on a together mortgage?

[OLIVE.FAMILY]

Hi there

Please do not worry. You have come to the right place. Without this form I would most cetainly be homeless. I now have enough courage to face my problems head on. You are right it really is no good burying your head n the sand as it will not go away. I done that for over a year hiding bills wherever I could out of site out of mind type thing.

So I am going to go through what I think everybody elses advice would be.

Firstly all your unsecured debts Credit cards, store cards and catolouges.

You need to do a CCA. This is a letter requesting your credit agreement. Each letter will only cost £1. The companies that can not produce this means that they cannot chase you any loner for the debt. Basicly they have to right the hole debt off.

If they produce a legal CCA(post each one on here and the guys on here will tell you if it is legal)you can then offer them token payments. Now really this is like a Debt management but you control it.

You can also do this for any unsecured loans.

With the electric ask them to spread the payments over a year. Write to them though and maybe include an income and expenditure to help you out. Explain that you are struggling. Usually these guys are pretty understanding. Write to them though as not only will that stop you from getting angry with them but also gives you proof.

For council tax ask them if you can spread the payments over full year. This will free up a little bit. Or you can ask if you can have those last two months that you dont have to pay now. They are also pretty good. Again just expalin that you are struggling at the mo and need time to catch up.

As for payment holiday I really don not know anyhting about NR and there products but I THINK you can still go on interest only. Try not to give away that you are struggling though. Just ask if it is a possibilty.

DONOT GET A LOAN. This will sink you further. Like I said threre is a possibility you can get rid of a lot of these for the cost of £1.

I will try and find the template for you.

Hope this is helping

Olives

[madnskint]

thanks Olive I am going to go now and see what I can read up then for the CCA, always worth a go also will follow you're advice on writing to the electric company, I think that will be more effective than lots of niggly phone calls which only end up making you angry and more frustrated.

many thanks

[OLIVE.FAMILY]

Good Luck and Keep us posted

[madnskint]

has anyone out there gone to NR with similar problems on a together mortgage , and have you managed to go interest only?
what do you think the outcome will be if I tell them that my income has changed? do you think that they will then just decide that I cannot pay and then try and take the house? and as I haven't told them of my income change can I get into trouble because of this?

I know that there are others in a far worse situation but I just want to do something before I get that far in.

thanx
mdnsknt

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by madnskint

has anyone out there gone to NR with similar problems on a together mortgage , and have you managed to go interest only?
what do you think the outcome will be if I tell them that my income has changed? do you think that they will then just decide that I cannot pay and then try and take the house? and as I haven't told them of my income change can I get into trouble because of this?

I know that there are others in a far worse situation but I just want to do something before I get that far in.

thanx
mdnsknt

madnskint

You are not obliged to tell NR that your income has changed. They cannot simply choose to repossess your home. You are not in that sort of trouble.

You must prioritise you outgoings. After you have paid for essentials, food clothing etc. What's left should meet these.

1) Council Tax (technically) They will help you if you talk to them, also if your income has changed substantially can you get a rebate?
2) Mortgage. If you get 2 to 3 months in arrears, they can go for a possession order.
3) Utilities, Gas Elec etc. At worst they will put you on a prepayment meter.
4) Unsecured Creditors. They have to go through a very long drawn out process to get any more than you can afford.

Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your viewpoint) you will have to accept that your credit rating will probably be reduced to rubble by this situation. Even people who come to an amicable repayment plan with the banks have their files marked, as being on a special arrangement.

Now you can contact your creditors and ask for reduced payments, as your circumstances have changed, however be careful as some will try to get you on a managed loan or even a lower rate secured loan, or you can force them to prove the debts exist. This option could give you many months or even years to sort yourself out.

You really should start to reclaim any charges from the Halifax. Do request copy agreements from your creditors, if only out of interest, at £1 a time it is very good value.

[gizmo111]

Go here and see if you are claiming all you can in benefits. As others have said do not take any further borrowing, you must sort out your priority debts that you have now, and these are not credit cards etc.

The first thing to do would be to ask NR if you can change to Interest Only, we cannot guess what their decision will be as it is based on an individuals circumstances.

Most of all don't worry, you are doing the right thing by tackling the problem at a very early stage.

Could either you or your partner or both get some extra work to fit in ith your studies?

[madnskint]

thanks for the replies

some good advice, both me and my OH have been trying to get extra work, but the problem has been childcare, which seems to be ridiculously expensive especially weekends, evenings and school holidays, and wouldnt leave us much better financially. as well as the jobs that we both do being incredibly demanding and stressful (working with children with severe behaviour problems) it leaves you so wiped out that even making dinner seems like hard work.and studying most days for at least three hours just adds to it.

but we are going ahead with the Halif**ks claim they have been stitching us up for years.
and the other debts are going down the CCa route as suggested by you good people.

[rippedoffagain]

Have you opened new bank accounts?

[madnskint]

Originally Posted by rippedoffagain

Have you opened new bank accounts?

no...is this incase hlfx close ours?

[gizmo111]

If you are both doing that type of work - then I wouldn't even think about taking on any more.
A good way to raise some cash is have a clear out and car boot sale or e-bay it.

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by madnskint

no...is this incase hlfx close ours?

It depends on weather or not you owe the Halifax any money. If not it doesn't matter, however if you have any debts with them, they have a clause in their terms and conditions that allows them to remove money from your current account to pay loan / credit card arrears. This can be a devastating shock, they have done it to me.

[madnskint]

Originally Posted by gizmo111

If you are both doing that type of work - then I wouldn't even think about taking on any more.
A good way to raise some cash is have a clear out and car boot sale or e-bay it.

we haven't really got much worth selling tbh I would sell the pc but i need it for studies I already sold the car to raise some cash (and bought a cheaper one) and its not like we go out to the pub and stuff the only unnecessary expense is a pack of tobacco once a week, I have also tried looking for work closer to home so that I don't have to spend about £200 prmnth on petrol and my wife about £80 on train and bus

[madnskint]

Originally Posted by rippedoffagain

It depends on weather or not you owe the Halifax any money. If not it doesn't matter, however if you have any debts with them, they have a clause in their terms and conditions that allows them to remove money from your current account to pay loan / credit card arrears. This can be a devastating shock, they have done it to me.

my OH has a loan with them, but as yet we are not in default the only debts we seem to have with them are created by damn charges.

Halifax really are a breed apart aren't they, would love to give the dancing singing guy on the adds a sound beating