A quarter of adults have missed one or more payments in the last year, according to recent research from Bluestone Mortgages. That’s around 12 million people! Utility bills were the payments most commonly missed, followed by credit cards. The cost-of-living crisis and high interest rate environment continue to impact finances and everyday life in many households. Where missed payments were often previously put down to isolated life events, such as redundancy, illness or divorce, this is no longer true.
The research found that many with missed payments were wary of seeking support and often felt embarrassed or overwhelmed. Of course, this is understandable, but please do not delay in asking for help, as the situation will only worsen. If you have found yourself in this situation, you certainly aren’t alone. If you are struggling to make payments, reach out to your provider straight away.
There’s often a misconception that if you have missed payments, you cannot get a mortgage. The good news is, this just isn’t the case, and there are many ways a mortgage adviser can help you navigate this process.
We will try to achieve the loan amount you need, whilst ensuring the mortgage is affordable for you, by understanding how different lenders would assess your income and which of your income streams they would be able to use, and carrying out our own affordability checks. We source the whole of market including lenders who cannot be accessed by customers directly, not just the high street lenders. This includes specialist lenders who have specific products to help with affordability, or who focus on helping with complex scenarios including adverse credit. We can find out whether the potential lender will credit score or not, which credit report they would use,and how they would view any issues on your credit file. Some will ignore missed payments on communications or utilities for example.
It may be that you are looking to consolidate some or all of your debts, to avoid missing payments (or missing further payments). There are a number of different ways you could do this, depending on whether you have an existing mortgage on your property or not, and we will compare the cost of all relevant options for you. Whilst this means securing the debts on your property and often paying more interest overall, it can make things more manageable, and reduce your monthly outgoings.
The value of advice cannot be underestimated!
What’s happening in the market in general?
Yesterday, the Bank of England opted to reduce the base rate to 5%. It had remained at the 16 year high of 5.25% since August 2023. Inflation overall remains steady (although figures for core and services inflation were higher, which is a slight cause for concern) and the change of Government has brought some confidence. This is likely to have swayed the MPC’s decision to finally make a reduction to the base rate.
We have seen many mortgage lenders reducing their rates in recent weeks, even before the base rate announcement. This indicates confidence in the market and a real willingness to lend and help customers! We’ve also seen more lenders releasing products to help with affordability, such as Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor mortgages, where others (usually relatives) can be named on the mortgage to assist with affordability, but aren’t named on the property deeds.
There’s no need to wait around to see what happens in the market. In most cases, we can secure you the cheapest deal available now, but continue to monitor rates, and change this prior to completion if the lender releases a cheaper product.
If you’d like to discuss your options, get in touch on 01702 538800 or email enquiries@ingard.co.uk
