Paying your mortgage

We know that the rising cost of living and higher interest rates are affecting many of our customers. If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage or worried you might struggle in the future, we’ll work hard to support you and treat you fairly.

Mortgage Charter

If you are looking to switch to interest-only or extend your mortgage term via the Government's Mortgage Charter scheme, please visit our dedicated Mortgage Charter webpage.

Before we agree together to make any changes to your payments or other arrangements, we’ll:

• Talk you through these changes
• Help you to understand their impact
• Give you some time to decide whether to move forward with them.

How to contact us

If you need to speak to a member of our support team, please phone:

• Co-operative Bank mortgage holders – 08000 288 288 (Call charges)
• Platform & Mortgage Agency Services mortgage holders – 0333 321 5965 (Call charges)

What we will do to support you

We will listen to you and:

• Make a note of your circumstances
• Assess your financial situation
• See how we can best help you
• Explore a way forward that has your best interests at heart.

What we may be able to do to support you

We may be able to:

• Agree a period of time to repay your missed payments which is affordable to you
• Agree a temporary plan with you to make no or limited payments until you can start full payments again
• Allow you to pay back your mortgage over a longer period of time. This would reduce your monthly payments if you have a repayment mortgage
• Consider adding any missed payments to the mortgage to be repaid over the remaining term
• Change the way you make your payments, review your current interest rate or the date you make payments
• Consider a change for you to pay only the interest on your mortgage. This would reduce your monthly payments if you have a repayment mortgage
• Help you to sell your property if your mortgage is no longer affordable. This allows you to remain in your home whilst it’s sold. If you have left your property you can volunteer to pass the property to us and we will take care of the sale
• Consider options for you to repay the mortgage balance, even if you don't have the funds to clear it in one go. (For example if selling the property is best for you and the sale price does not cover the mortgage balance)

Other options are also available, so it’s important that you speak to us so we can tailor our support to your circumstances.

What you can do

We know falling behind on mortgage payments is stressful. There are a few things you can do to make sure you get the right support for your situation, including:

• Send us a few details of your circumstances and financial situation
• Tell us as soon as possible if you’re having problems making your mortgage payments or think you might experience problems in the immediate future
• Stay in contact with us and let us know if you change telephone number or address
• Seek debt advice if you would like help with managing your finances
• Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits which could help to increase your income
• If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments – for example, Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance
• Keep to any payment plans we agree with you, or let us know if there’s a change in your circumstances which may affect the arrangement – if you do not make the agreed payments or you do not keep us updated on your circumstances, we may be left with no other option but to go to court to seek to recover any money you owe us, or to repossess your property.

If you would prefer to discuss your situation with a separate organisation first, you can read below about independent organisations that offer advice and support.

How to send us details of your circumstances and financial situation

Sending us details of your circumstances and financial situation helps us to give you the most relevant advice as quickly as possible. You can do this by:

1. Downloading and saving the income and expenditure form (PDF).
2. Completing the form – you can do this directly within the PDF.
3. If you have a Co-operative Bank mortgage, please send your completed form to mortgagesupport@co-operativebank.co.uk.
4. If you have a Platform mortgage, please send your completed form to mortgagesupport@wmsl.co.uk.

Penalties for missed payments

We don't apply penalties for missed payments.

Selling your home or taking loans

Some companies offer solutions to mortgage payment problems which aren’t always in your best interest. Please be mindful of:

• Companies who offer to buy your property for a ‘quick sale’ – they will often offer less than the market value for the property
• Companies who invite you to sell your property to them and then lease or rent it back from them
• Companies who offer loans with unusually high interest rates.

If you’re considering any of the above, we would advise you to seek independent advice, by speaking to an external debt charity such as StepChange on +44 (0)800 138 1111 (Call charges).

If you’re thinking of selling your property, it’s a good idea to get a free valuation of your property from a local estate agent.

You may be thinking about handing your keys over to us. If you do this, you will still owe us any outstanding debt once we sell the property, so please discuss this with us first.

Independent organisations offering advice and support

You can contact a number of organisations that provide free, confidential and impartial advice.