Having a hard time keep up with your housing loan payments?

By: Zeng Han Jun, CPCG, Singapore


Recently there are quite a lot of inquiries from customers who have problems keeping up with their monthly housing loan payments. Many of them landed into this situation due to tightening of their finances.
If you happened to be in this category, do not despair. The most important thing right now is NOT enter into a mode of passivity and try to do something about it. Doing nothing about it can make the problem worse as time goes by. What can you do about it then?

Refinance your home loan

Refinance your home loan to another housing loan, allows you to change the terms and condition of your present mortgage. Changing details like loan tenure and interest rates can result in a great change in your monthly payments. It does not matter if you are currently still in a lock in period that prevents you from refinancing. Talk to a mortgage broker or mortgage advisor to explore various solutions that are available to you.

Talk to your bank

Try to talk to your bank about your situation. Do not just settle for a solution over the phone. Arrange a face to face meeting with the credit officer and try to get them to help you.You do not have a personal credit officer that attends solely to you. Your banking account gets rotated around many different credit officers. Details of exact conversation may be lost when you try to call in another time. Do not be embarrassed about arranging an appointment with them. Insist on a face to face meeting. Most probably, when you meet up with them, there will be a private room for you to hold your discussion so that nobody else will hear about it. Never take “No” for an answer. They will try to restructure your loan in order to help you tide over this period. In case they do not, again try to refinance your existing loan.

Sell your house

This is quite a drastic method but it does help. Sell your house and opt for renting. Do take note that selling houses take quite some time. It can take up to six months to a year to successfully close the sales of your house. Renting a place to stay for the time being, frees you up from many responsibilities. If you have chosen the right place to rent, the monthly payments can decrease by quite a lot.

Remember, if you are having problems keeping up with your monthly payments. Never ever do nothing about it. Being passive can compound onto the present problem and it slowly snow balls into a disaster. Nobody can try to help you except yourself. Quickly contact those people whom you think are able to help you and do something about it.

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