Mortgage Health Check

If you’ve taken or switched to a fixed rate deal recently, this means your payment will remain the same for the rest of the deal period and you don’t need to worry about your payment increasing at the moment.

You can check your current mortgage deal, and account information by either looking at your mortgage offer letter, or logging into Mortgage Manager via our Banking app or Internet Bank.

If you’re on a tracker product your interest rate moves in line with the Bank of England base rate. If you’re worried about your payments increasing, you might want to consider switching to a fixed rate.

There are usually no Early Repayment Charges to switch from a Nationwide tracker, but you can check in Mortgage Manager to confirm this. You’ll need to remember that if rates decrease and you’ve taken a fixed product, you won’t see the benefit of lower payments.

If you need advice about switching to a fixed rate, call us or speak to your mortgage broker.

If you’re on our Standard Mortgage Rate (SMR) or Base Mortgage Rate (BMR) product, you might want to consider switching to a new mortgage deal which could mean a lower rate and protection from future increases.

No Early Repayment Charges apply when switching from our SMR or BMR products and switching is simple and easy. There are no affordability checks, provided you’re not taking additional borrowing, or legal fees and no maximum loan to value. Your adviser will help you check if a new product meets your needs if you’re not sure it has all the features you want to keep.

If you’re approaching the end of your current deal, you should start considering your options well in advance. To help you with this, we’ll write to you around 4 months before the end of your deal outlining your options.

You can reserve a new product up to 5 months before the end of your existing one without paying any Early Repayment Charges (ERCs).

Doing this in advance of your current deal ending can give you certainty of what your new payment will be.

For added peace of mind, you can change your product before it starts if you change your mind or if rates reduce further.

If you want to switch part-way through your mortgage deal, you'll have to pay an Early Repayment Charge (ERC) unless you're in the final 3 months of your deal period.

You can check on Mortgage Manager to see if ERCs currently apply for you. If this is the case, you’ll need to speak to us to get advice about the suitability of switching early.

The future movement of interest rates has probably never been so uncertain. That’s why we offer a wide range of product options, including a 2 year tracker product that follow the Bank of England base rate, and fixed rates for 2, 3, 5 and 10 years. You can compare our rates and product features online.

If you’re unsure of your options and need advice, speak to your Nationwide mortgage adviser or your broker for help. They can help you find a product that’s best for your situation.

If you’ve previously made overpayments, you can often use these to reduce your current payments. You can do this by underpaying by up to the same value you previously overpaid.

This means higher interest costs over your mortgage term but could help reduce your payments for a period.

If you want to start underpaying, you need to call us first.

If you’re making overpayments on your mortgage, you can change or stop the amount you overpay.

If you’d like to start making overpayments to save interest or give yourself more payment flexibility in future, you can make ad hoc or regular overpayments and do this in Mortgage Manager.

Changing your mortgage term could help if you want to reduce your payments or save on interest on your mortgage overall.

Extending your term may be an option to help you reduce your monthly payment, though it will cost you more in interest over the long term.

At Nationwide, you can extend your term up to your planned retirement age, with no affordability checks, in Mortgage Manager or by calling us. It is possible to extend beyond this, but it will be subject to an assessment.

If you only need to reduce your payments temporarily, you can change back to your original term within 6 months without an affordability check or affecting your credit file.

You can also reduce your term to save interest, though your monthly payments would increase – you can do this in Mortgage Manager too. Depending on how much your payment is increasing we might need to do some affordability checks.

Using either of these options won't appear on your credit file. But some lenders might look at your payment history when making lending decisions.

If you're on a Nationwide mortgage that you took out before March 2010 it might include a payment holiday feature. It could help you manage your outgoings for a short period, but it will end up costing more in the long term.

You can choose to only pay the interest on your mortgage for 6 months.

We'll work out the amount you need to pay based on your interest rate and balance. Your payments will then be fixed at that amount for 6 months.

Your mortgage balance won't go down while you're only paying the interest. That means after the 6 months your monthly payments will be higher than they are now, because you'll be paying off the mortgage over a shorter term.

Changes to interest only payments start from the 1st of each month. Apply as early as you can in the month to give us enough time to set up your payments if you want them to start from the following month.

We recognise it’s a challenging time for many people. If you’re finding it difficult to repay your mortgage or think you might do soon, it’s important to contact us as soon as you can.

We understand circumstances can change and sometimes it may feel hard to meet your monthly mortgage payments, so give us a call. We’ve got years of experience helping our members with money worries. We’ll always take time to listen to you, so we understand your current situation. And don't worry, just getting in touch with us won't affect your credit score.

You can use our online tool or speak to one of our team to provide some information about your current income and expenses. This will help us understand your finances and try to agree a plan that works for you.

We have a range of options to support members who are in or facing difficulties with their payments. We’ll also be clear with you what this means for your credit file and how we can work together to get you back on top of things.

Call us: 0800 464 30 30 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Closed weekends and bank holidays).

Use Mortgage Manager to choose and apply for your options if you’re comfortable to do this yourself and without taking any advice. If you need advice, or need to speak to our mortgage advisers, please call us.