Published in Debt Advice Features on Thursday, October 12 2006

What can you do if you are struggling with your mortgage repayments? If you run into difficulties in paying your mortgage you must remember this is a top priority debt. A new survey released for this years Advice Week shows that at least 770,000 people have missed a mortgage payment in Great Britain in the last twelve months, and it also showed up a gross misunderstanding in the term secured lending.

11% of people who completed the survey thought a secured loan was where you could miss payments and your property was actually safeguarded, with a further 10% of people thinking it was a loan where you can choose to pack back as much or as little as you like each month. It is important to remember you are not alone, and that secured lending means you must keep up your payments.

If you do run into difficulties, contact your mortgage lender straight away and discuss why you are having difficulties. Do not try and borrow more money, secured or unsecured as it can make matters worse. Don’t just stop or miss payments as this could lead to you losing your home, and don’t ignore letters especially court papers and court hearings.

You could possibly help yourself - if you examine your income and expenditure you may be able to see areas where you could cut back and save money. Alternatively if unsecured debt is eating away all your money, seek financial advice on how to deal with this so you can therefore maintain your mortgage payments at the same rate.

If there is no way you can manage still, get in touch with your local citizens advice bureau straight away.