A Payment Holiday is where you can apply to take a break from paying your usual monthly mortgage payments.
For some customers, Payment Holidays may have previously been referred to as Instalment breaks.
Subject to an application meeting the criteria, Payment Holidays are available for a period of one, two or three months and you can make an application for a payment holiday once every two years.
Payment Holidays are available for a variety of reasons, usually to assist with a temporary change to your circumstances, like a change in employment or unexpected or unforeseen vehicle or household expenditure. In certain circumstances a Payment Holiday of up to six (consecutive) months is available, to coincide with maternity, paternity or adoption breaks.
If you decide to take a payment holiday interest would continue to accrue, meaning you'll pay more interest overall and your monthly payments will be higher after the holiday.
You may be eligible to apply for a Payment Holiday if:
- It's been at least twelve months since you took out your mortgage and six months since you took any additional borrowing with us
- Your mortgage payments are up to date
- You have paid twelve months’ worth of mortgage payments in the last twelve months.
Although we try to help as many customers as possible, there will be some cases where a payment holiday may not be available to you. These include the following:
- If your mortgage is conducted on a Shared Ownership or Buy-to-Let basis
- Your mortgage is in arrears