A guide written by a foster carer, for foster carers
In this guest post, Peter Stamford of Moor Mortgages, who we previously interviewed as part of our Transferrable skills series (read the interview here) provides guidance for Foster Carer’s looking to remortgage in the next year. Also included is practical advice & recent changes to government support for those struggling with rising mortgage costs.
Starting this week, the government has made some changes to help homeowners who are having a tough time because of rising mortgage rates.
Big banks like NatWest, Nationwide, and Barclays (and a lot of the smaller ones too) will now let people change how they pay back their home loans. They can either pay less now for 6 months, or take longer to pay back the loan.
The good news is, doing this won’t hurt their credit scores, which are really important for things like getting loans in the future.
It has been agreed that people can make these changes without any questions asked.
But, it’s important to understand that changing the way you pay your mortgage can mean you might end up paying more over time.
Here’s why: when you only pay the interest on your mortgage and not the actual loan, your monthly payments will be less. But when you switch back to paying the loan, you’ll have less time left to pay the rest of the money you owe.
This will mean bigger payments each month after the initial 6 months has finished. The other option is to take more time to pay back your loan, but this means you will end up paying more in interest.
There’s also a new rule, called the Mortgage Charter, which protects homeowners from losing their homes for a year if they can’t make their payments. However, this rule doesn’t apply to all lenders, and some homeowners won’t be protected.
It can be tricky to know what’s best, and is different for each person. But if you have any questions or want any details explained further feel free to get in touch. I’m always happy to talk.
In the meantime I made a handy booklet for Foster Carers who are remortgaging in the next year. It lays out what you could be doing at each season leading up to your remortgage date.
By Peter Stamford of Moor Mortgages
Access Peter’s booklet here in our Resource Centre and if you would like professional mortgage advice from someone who truly understands a Foster Carer’s unique situation, get in touch with Peter here, or call 01434 307744
