Support for customers experiencing financial difficulties

We know it can be hard to talk about your finances, but if you’ve missed a mortgage payment, or think you might miss one, we’re here to help you. We have a fully trained and experienced team who will work with you to understand your circumstances and find a manageable solution.

Your mortgage is a priority debt, so if you’re worried you could miss a payment, then contact us as soon as possible so we can provide early assistance. If you have a representative who supports you with managing your finances, we can put measures in place so that we can talk to them on your behalf.

We may be able to consider making some changes to your mortgage account for a short period of time to help you manage your payments.

However, if we are able to agree a temporary change to your mortgage payments, the amount unpaid will still be owed when the change comes to an end. If you pay less than the interest due your mortgage balance will increase, as will the amount of interest you pay over the remaining term of the mortgage.

We’ll also need to report the arrangement to the credit reference agencies, which could affect your ability to borrow money in the future.

Contacting us in the first instance will not impact your credit file and the sooner you do this, the sooner we can help you (this may also help to avoid fees). We can also signpost you to free impartial advice if you need further support.

If you want to talk to someone, please call our Financial Support team as soon as possible on 03332 406114. They’re available between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

You may also find it useful to visit the MoneyHelper or UK Finance websites for out-of-hours assistance. In addition, we’ve compiled a list of free third-party resources in a downloadable guide at the foot of the page, under “Further support and advice”.

You may also want to visit www.payplan.com/prestige-finance to see how Payplan can support you with your finances.

Ways we may be able to support:

Interest rate reduction

Having a temporary reduction in your interest rate may be an appropriate way to make your payments lower in the interim. Following a review of your circumstances and an affordability check we could lower your rate for up to six months.

This will show as an arrangement on your credit file which could affect your ability to borrow money in the future. We’ll write to you before the rate ends and could look at further support if required.

To speak to someone about a temporary interest rate reduction, please call our Financial Support team on 03332 406114.

Concessional payment

Following a review of your circumstances and an affordability check we could accept an amount lower than your full monthly payment. However, this means it may take longer to repay your mortgage balance or result in your future mortgage payments increasing.

This would show as forbearance on your credit file and would increase your arrears balance. This may also be reportable as an arrangement on your credit file which could affect your ability to borrow money in the future.

To speak to someone about a concessional payment, please call our Financial Support team on 03332 406114.

Payment deferral

If your affordability check shows that you can’t make a payment but your circumstances mean that you’ll be able to recommence payments in the future, we could suspend your payments for a period. Interest would still be charged on your mortgage. After the payment deferral period, the suspended payments will be added to your mortgage and your balance will increase. This means that your contractual monthly payments will increase so that the suspended payments are cleared by the end of your mortgage term.

This will show as an arrangement on your credit file which could affect your ability to borrow money in the future.

Temporary interest-only arrangement

You can take out an interest-only agreement for up to six months. This would show as arrangement on your credit file which could affect your ability to borrow money in the future. This will temporarily reduce your monthly payments by only paying the interest instead of making payments towards the current balance of your mortgage, also known as the capital balance. We’ll write to you before it’s due to finish to explain what options you have to pay back the capital balance that’s not paid during the interest-only arrangement.

Things to consider:

Higher monthly mortgage payments after the temporary interest-only period. As you’re only paying off the interest on your mortgage, your capital balance won’t be reducing.
Capital balance will continue to have interest charged on it. This means you’ll end up paying more interest over the remaining term of your mortgage.

To speak with someone about an interest-only arrangement, please call our Financial Support team on 03332 406114.

Extending your mortgage term

Extending the length of your mortgage term means you’ll benefit from lower payments as you’ll be paying your mortgage balance over a longer period.

You’ll be able to reduce the term up to six months after the extension takes effect without an affordability assessment, which can take you back to the original term or a term in between the original term and your new term.

If you want to reduce the term after the six months term extension, an affordability assessment will be required.

Please note this isn’t available for customers with an interest-only mortgage.

Things to consider:

Your mortgage will take longer to pay off. If you decide to change back to your original term, your payments will be higher but you’ll be paying less interest so your mortgage will be paid off sooner.
The overall cost of your mortgage will increase.
As interest rates change, your payment may also change.

To speak with someone about extending your mortgage term, please call our Financial Support team on 03332 406114.

Information we’ll need

We’ll need a full understanding of your current income and expenditure, so we know how best to support you.

We’ve worked alongside Paylink Solutions to create an online income and expenditure form for residential borrowers or buy to let borrowers who have up to and including three rental properties.

Completing this form will allow us to assess your situation before we call you to discuss your options. We aim to deal with all requests within five working days.

If you’re a buy to let borrower with four or more rental properties call our Financial Support team on 03332 406114 instead.

If we’re unable to offer assistance, our team will provide guidance on what steps you need to take and may suggest that you seek independent financial advice. We can’t offer advice about debts you hold with other organisations. In such instances, you should speak to the organisation involved and/or approach an independent free debt advice service. These organisations can review all your debts and help you find solutions to manage your payments to your creditors, review access to benefits, support budgeting and help you cut your costs.

Contact details for some of these services, including not for profit organisations, are included in our downloadable guide, under further support and advice.