How to Work Out Mortgage Repayments

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Matt McKillen with Innovative Financial Group. We're having tough economic times right now and a question was post to me today, "how do I work out repayments on my mortgage with my lender?" Generally, if you fall behind on your mortgage, you'll be getting a letter or a phone call from your mortgage lender, you know, inquiring why your loan is late. It's usually in the collections department. Right now, there's a strong push not to foreclose on people who are in trouble with their mortgage. Generally, your account can be handled in one of two departments with the bank, one being with either in the collections department, or if it's fallen seriously delinquent, it could be in what's called the Lost Mitigation Department. Now, there is a real big trend right now that if a family is going through financial hardship, maybe they can't afford their mortgage because someone's lost a job and an income source in the house, perhaps they got into an adjustable rate loan that now is finally converting over that was perhaps fixed for the first couple of years and now either going through a payment shock. If any of these factors fall into place, generally you can negotiate with your collections department, maybe to take the late payments and spread them out over the life of the loan, either put the arrears on the back end of the loan, or better yet, which is happening quite often now, is to modify the mortgage, which means they would actually possibly reduce the interest rate to make the loan more affordable. There are a lot of options available right now and the bank are really working with clients to keep them in their homes. Thanks again for asking, my name is Matt McKillen, with Innovative Financial Group."