Payment Holidays

Hi all,

I’ve been offered a payment holiday by Halifax for my mortgage. I’m self-employed and my wife manages a care home. As a key worker, she is still going out to work every day. In fact she’s working more hours than before so from a financial point of view we’ve not taken a hit there.

As I’m self-employed, I’m self isolating (so I don’t catch COVID-19 and accidentally pass it to her and those she cares for). My work has slowed down in some areas but increased in others. As a journalist I write for a few hospitality publications and have taken on extra commissions because of the virus and it’s effect on that industry. Although I think that throughout April I’m likely to earn less than I did in March and previous months, but I’m not sure it’s worth taking Halifax up on their offer.

We’re still likely to be able to pay our mortgage and other bills. But my question is; should we take the offer anyway? The offer is a 3 month payment holiday which means we’d be £600 better off a month for three months. This sounds great, but the interest will still accrue and after that 3 month period our payments will likely be recalculated to include the three unpaid ones. Making them higher.

Now extending our mortgage by 3 months doesn’t worry us. We’ll be remortgaging anyway soon enough to build an extension. We’re also now better off financially then we were when we took out the mortgage, so as far as changes and renegotiation go we’re not worried. But it’s the increased interest that concerns us. We understand this question pretty much boils down to what your fixed rate of interest is, but in your opinion, should we take the payment holiday if we’re not struggling yet as a precaution? Or should we hold our nerve and just tighten our belts a little?

Thanks

Sam