Martin Davies, Bristol
UK Banks/Mortgage lenders are happy to spend millions of pounds on TV advertising campaigns aimed at letting existing customers know how important they are to them and what they are doing for them, but the reality is when their existing customers truly need help, the same Bank/Mortgage lenders simply turn their backs
Across the UK millions of people are struggling to meet their financial commitments as a result of the current economic situation. For those people with a Mortgage, this monthly repayment will be their major concern and no doubt they will do everything in their power to remain in the black where their Mortgage is concerned.
Unfortunately, a sudden, unexpected change in financial circumstances can make it extremely difficult for some people to make their Mortgage repayments despite their best intentions. These people will live in constant fear that their family will end up being homeless.
So what should these people do?
The usual recommendation is that these people should contact their Mortgage lender as soon as possible and make them aware of the problem.
Unfortunately, many Mortgage customers are proactive and make contact with their lender before they get behind on their repayments in order to try and resolve this issue only to be told that their Mortgage lender is not prepared to listen until they are already behind on their payments. At this stage the person's credit record has already been ruined and they are on the slippery slope of getting into serious debt. How do I know that some Mortgage lenders respond this way to their existing customers?
Because it happened to me a week ago
I have been with my current Mortgage lender for 15 years and in that time I have religiously met my repayments every month without fail. In fact, I have even over-paid when possible in order to pay my Mortgage off early and this means I am now thousands of pounds ahead of where I need to be to pay my Mortgage off on time.
I made contact with my lender because as a valued customer I needed their help. A while ago I was made redundant. I have always made a point of saving what I could each month and this meant when I was made redundant I had a cushion of savings to fall back on. So for a while I have been using my savings to meet my financial commitments while I have looked frantically for employment. I have even put my house up for sale as a back-up plan. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find employment and my savings are beginning to run out. Even worse, I cannot seem to sell my house. Unless something drastically changes, I will shortly be in the position of being unable to meet my monthly repayments.
My plea for help from my Mortgage lender has very much fallen on deaf ears so over the last week I have searched internet forums and blogs to see what other people have to say and find out what I can do. Sadly, after speaking to a lot of different people what I have found is that my Mortgage lender's response is not that unusual, many of the people I have spoken to have had exactly the same response from their lender.
It cannot be denied that it is the borrower's responsibility to do everything in their power to meet their Mortgage repayments, but in circumstances where this becomes impossible, it cannot be denied that the Mortgage lender has a moral responsibility to provide the borrower with reasonable support.
Sadly, it would seem that Mortgage lenders are more interested in spending millions of pounds on telling existing customers how they are going to help them, rather than actually doing it.
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