House payment help!!!

[BabyTigger99]

Question about house payments. Is there ever a way, just for one month, to just pay the interest and taxes on your home, and nothing towards the principal? Has anyone ever heard of something like this?

 

[crz4mm2]

I would think it would depend on your lender. Many many years ago we used to do this once in awhile (usually in Dec and at tax time). Call and ask.

 

[OhMari]

GMAC used to send us a letter, but I haven't seen it in awhile. Wouldn't that be nice.

 

[BabyTigger99]

If you do something like that, are you penalized in any way?

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I wish! Our credit union allows us to skip our December car payment every year though.

 

[palmtreegirl]

You just have to call your lender and ask them, the rules are different for each company.

If it's a first time occurance and you've never been late before you probably have a better chance of them helping you out.

 

[kilee]

You can ask to defer a payment. It will all depend on your lender.

 

[ducklite]

It's called a forebearence, and as long as your credit is good and you are in good standing most lenders will work with you if you have a legitimate need for doing so. Buying Christmas presents isn't going to cut it. There is a fairly lengthy form you need to fill out, and they can take 10-30 days to make a decision. It can sometimes affect your credit negatively, be certain you find out how they plan on reporting it.

Also, depending on your interest rate, how long you've owned your home, and the type of loan you have, it might be a very small amount of money you are saving--as low as a couple hundred dollars or so, find out what your monthly interest/principal payments are before going further to be sure it's a logical thing to do for your circumstances.

Anne

 

[Kimberle]

Unless you're at the end of your repayment schedule, you're really not going to save much money. At the beginning, a very high percent (could be 90% or more, goes to your interest and taxes. If your payment coupon doesn't break it out for you, I'd call you bank and ask first before you look further into this.

You might be better off just taking out an additional short term loan or borrowing from a 401k plan. (Then you'd be repaying yourself, not a bank.)

 

[Nancy]

Lots of good advice here. Right now if i only paid taxes and interest it would only save me about 100.00.