6. Ways to pay your arrears
Your lender will discuss the different ways you can repay your mortgage arrears. If you’ve got any money left over each month after paying essential bills, you could suggest adding a little bit on top of your future monthly payments.
If your home is worth more than the mortgage, your lender might let you add your arrears to the total amount you owe and pay it back over the lifetime of the mortgage. This is known as ‘capitalising your arrears’.
You might also be able to pay off your arrears using your pension or an endowment policy - which is a type of life assurance.
There’s a chance you could end up paying lots of interest or even get into more debt with these options, so it’s worth talking to an adviser at your local Citizens Advice first.
If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage every month, you could ask to:
- pay the debt over a longer period
- switch to interest-only payments
- take a break from your payments for a few months - this is known as taking a 'repayment holiday'
If you get benefits, it’s also worth checking if you’re eligible for Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loan. You might be able to use SMI to pay the interest on your mortgage. This benefit is changing to a loan from April 2018.