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Coronavirus and your mortgage

What is a mortgage payment holiday?

If you’re worried about paying your mortgage during the coronavirus outbreak, a payment holiday enables you to pause your monthly payments for a temporary period. Following revised guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), payment holidays are now also referred to as ‘payment deferrals’. So, you may see, or hear, this phrase used elsewhere.

Although no monthly payments will be due during your payment holiday, interest will continue to accrue and will be added to your loan balance. This will result in an increase to your monthly payments when they restart at the end of the payment holiday and in the total cost of your borrowing.

If you’re able to afford any payments during your payment holiday, even if they’re less than your current monthly payment, we encourage you to make them. If you do, it will reduce the impact on your future monthly payments and total cost of borrowing at the end of the payment holiday.

Although taking a payment holiday won’t negatively impact your credit file, keep in mind that lenders may take into account other information when making future lending decisions.

Financial Conduct Authority guidance

How and when can I take my mortgage payment holiday?

The guidance given by the FCA to all lenders provides that:

the maximum payment holiday you’re allowed is 6 months total but that 3 months is the most you can take at any one time
you can apply for a first payment holiday at any time before 31 March 2021. From 1 April 2021, you can only apply for another payment holiday if it will follow directly on from a previous one (so you can't have made a contractual payment in the meantime and you must have taken less than the 6 months maximum total)
all payment holidays must finish by 31 July 2021. To use all 6 months available, you would need to apply for your first payment holiday at least 7 days before your February 2021 payment is due

What considerations should I make?

Whether you’re considering if a payment holiday is right for you, would like some money guidance or information to help with your debts, there are some useful resources you may benefit from exploring:

Financial Conduct Authorities ‘Dealing with financial difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first]’
Money Advice Service’s Navigator Tool Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first] to create an action plan based on your own situation, or,
Money Advice Service’s debt advice locator tool Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first]

Who can I speak with to get independent advice?

You can also get free independent advice from:

See how a payment holiday could impact future mortgage payments

You can use our calculator to see the likely change to your monthly payments and total cost of borrowing by taking a payment holiday of up to 3 months. You’ll need:

your current remaining loan balance.
interest rate.
remaining term.

These can be found on your annual statement or by logging on to Online Banking.

Use our calculator now

It’s important to note that taking a mortgage payment holiday is only suitable for short-term financial concerns. If you consider yourself to be in long term financial difficulty and would like to speak with someone please call us on 03 456 100 193 (lines open Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm and Sat 8am to 4pm). Please don’t delay in having a conversation with us about this, we have dedicated people who can help.

Who can apply for a mortgage payment holiday?

We want to provide help to everyone who needs it, and particularly those who need it most urgently. So we can do that, please only apply if:

you have an existing first direct mortgage.
you’ve been financially impacted, or expect to be financially impacted by coronavirus.
everyone else named on the mortgage has agreed to applying for a payment holiday.
you’re aware that interest will continue to be charged during the payment holiday, that the total amount you owe us on your mortgage will increase and that your monthly payments may increase when the payment holiday comes to an end.

How to apply for a payment holiday

If you’ve used our calculator to see the likely impact of taking a payment holiday and you’d like to apply, you can complete our form. Please return back to fd.sales.support@firstdirect.com and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible. This email address is for mortgage payment holiday form submissions only. It's really important you fully complete it, as we are not able to progress without it.

You’ll need your mortgage sort code and account number. Make sure these are correct before you submit the application as we’ll use these details to match the form to your profile. You can find these details on your mortgage statement, or by logging on to Online Banking.

If you have already had a payment holiday, do not complete this application form. Find out more about applying for another payment holiday and other support here.

If you’d prefer to discuss the possibility of taking a payment holiday, please call us on 03 456 100 103 (lines open Mon to Sat 8am to 8pm and Sun 9am to 8pm).

Managing your payments at the end of your payment holiday

We’ll write to you before your payment holiday ends and explain what your new payments will be.

If you’re unable to restart your payments at the end of your payment holiday, we’ll let you know what other options are available. These may include extending your pament holiday by another 3 months. However, the options available may depend on your personal circumstances and teh date your payment holiday ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will a mortgage payment holiday affect my credit score?

How long will it take you to process my application for a mortgage payment holiday?

We aim to process all requests within 3 days, although due to the high volume of forms being submitted, sometimes this make take a little longer. We are prioritising customers whose mortgage payments are first, so please bear with us.

I have a payment due soon and haven’t heard from you since submitting my application, what should I do?

We have received a large number of requests for payment holidays and are processing them as quickly as we can. If you have a mortgage payment due in the next 3 working days which you'll be unable to make, please call us on 03 456 100 103 (lines open Mon to Sat 8am to 8pm and Sun 9am to 8pm).

I want to end my payment holiday early, what should I do?

I may struggle to pay my next home insurance monthly payment?

If you’re a first direct Home Insurance customer, you can request to defer your monthly payment and spread it evenly over the remaining term of your policy.

You can apply up to 3 times to defer a maximum of 3 months’ payments.

Find out how payment deferrals work and how to apply Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].