Life happens and along with it comes many challenges that we all face. These normal challenges can sometimes be magnified when you have a mortgage payment bearing down on you each and every month. There is always help available for you, but it is essential to remember a few things when you are having trouble making your monthly payment.
- Never Wait!!! Simply missing payments is the worst thing you can do. It is important to be as on top of you payments as you can be, and that does not always mean making the payment. Recognize as early as possible when you know you will not be able to make your payment and contact your lender to let them know that you are having trouble. Often times they will have a solution for you. Simply waiting and waiting and missing payments and avoiding the situation will only further the difficulty in helping you out of your current situation.
- Never purposely miss a payment. Many times you will hear advice from friends, family, your lender, or from advertisements from companies that claim to help you out of your current situation, or just out of your own anger over a certain situation with your lender. No matter what ANYBODY tells you, if you have the means to make your mortgage payment, the best course of action is to make the payment. Missing a payment will wreck your credit standing and force extreme difficulty on you including other creditors using your lowered credit score as an excuse to raise your interest rates on installment loans or credit card payments only furthering your troubles. Any program designed to help you out of a bad situation will not require you to purposely miss a mortgage payment.
- Do not refinance your loan simply because you can not afford a singly monthly payment. Now if your monthly payment is too high and you need to lower it, it is a good idea to explore the option of refinancing. But if you can not lower your interest rate and you simply need to pay back taxes or get a month off from a mortgage payment because you are in a bind is not a good reason to refinance. In most cases you will end up with a lot of undue stress and extending your loan balance and term only to end up in the same situation down the line.
- Read, review, review again, ask questions, and make sure that you FULLY understand the implications of any program your lender offers you that is based on missing a payment or rolling a payment in to the back end of your loan. Most lenders will fail to tell you that they will be marking your payments as late until you make up the missed payment. Meanwhile you are relieved from the payment you didn't have to make and your lender has ruined your credit and any chance of refinancing. Why would they do that? Duh, because if you can't refinance then you are forced to keep paying them interest every month!
- If your lender can not help you, contact a HUD-approved debt counseling agency which are easy found here:
- Be smart about it. If something seems too good to be true it probably is. If you do get yourself into a situation where you feel taken advantage of, tell your lender about it- you will be surprised how powerful your own words can be if you express yourself to your lender in a calm and confused fashion. If they seem to just run over your concerns with no resolution, don't be afraid to contact an attorney about the matter. Many attorneys will consult you on the matter without an up-front charge.
If you need further information check out some of these websites:
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