Guide to dealing with mortgage repayment difficulties

• Step 1 - Contact your Bank of Ireland mortgage adviser
• Step 2 - Complete a Financial Review form
• Step 3 - Discuss options with your Bank of Ireland mortgage adviser
• Step 4 - Stay in Touch
• Some helpful advice
• Our doors are open
• Useful contacts

If you are already having difficulty repaying your mortgage, or are concerned that you may soon face some financial problems, the first step is to contact your Bank of Ireland mortgage adviser. By highlighting your concern early, it gives us the best possible chance of helping you to find a solution.

Before you meet your mortgage adviser take some time to draw up a budget based on your current income and your spending commitments. This simply means that you add up your income for, say, a typical month, and subtract your bills and other expenses. Then look through this in detail and identify where savings can be made. Our Financial Advice section has a useful 'Budget Planner' which may help you with this. You can also call the Money Advice and Budgeting Service which provides excellent independent advice, free of charge (see 'Useful Contacts').

Your Bank of Ireland mortgage adviser will help you to complete a 'Financial Review Form', which will provide us with a detailed picture of your financial situation. We will use this to help identify potential solutions and put an arrangement in place to suit your particular needs, that will help you through your immediate financial difficulties. This could include, for example, reviewing other borrowings, such as personal loans or credit cards, to see if savings can be made by restructuring or consolidating any of these debts.

Depending on your individual circumstances, here are some of the mortgage restructure options we can explore with you:

• Extend the term of your mortgage, which will reduce the amount of your monthly repayments
• Agree a series of set repayments to reduce the amount of your monthly repayments for a time
• Change the type of mortgage you hold to reduce your monthly repayments, for example, changing from capital and interest repayments to interest only
• Postpone all or part of your mortgage repayments for a period to ease the immediate financial pressure on you.

Your own circumstances will dictate which combination of solutions will suit you best, and we fully appreciate that each situation is different. It is important to understand, however, that any action to reduce your mortgage repayments in the short term will not save you money, and is likely to add to the overall cost of your mortgage.

The options listed above are part of the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears which Bank of Ireland fully subscribes to. Under this code, we will make every reasonable effort to help customers deal with their mortgage repayment obligations, and we have committed to waiting a minimum of 12 months from the time arrears first arose before starting legal proceedings. This 12 month period does not apply if you deliberately do not engage with us. Full details of the Code can be found on the website of the Financial Regulator (see 'Useful Contacts').

In addition to the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, Bank of Ireland also subscribes to the IBF Pledge to Homeowners. As part of this, we promise that where a mutually acceptable arrangement is in place to deal with any arrears on your mortgage account, and you maintain this arrangement, we will not start any legal action against you. We will review this arrangement with you on a regular basis. Full details of the IBF Pledge to Homeowners can be found on the IBF website (see 'Useful Contacts').

Once you have a new repayment plan in place, it is important that you stay in regular contact with us to ensure that the new plan is working for you.

Don't ignore correspondence

No matter how bad things may seem, please keep in regular contact with us and always respond to letters or phone calls. If we don't hear from you, we have no way of knowing how bad the problem is and can't start the process of finding a solution for your mortgage repayment difficulties.

Stick to your new budget and review it regularly

Once you have a budget in place, ensure you stick to it. And remember, circumstances can change, so it is important to review your budget regularly to be sure it continues to meet your needs.

Make sure you understand the implications of your arrangements

Your mortgage advisor will explain the implications of your new repayment arrangement. However, should you wish to research this further, there are many independent sources of information that you can refer to (see 'Useful Contacts').

We have qualified mortgage advisers in every Bank of Ireland branch who are available to discuss any mortgage repayment issue you might have, whenever you need to. It may be comforting for you to know that we have worked with many customers over the years who have faced similar challenges, and have helped them to face the future confidently, secure in the knowledge that their finances are in order.

So if you're anxious about your ability to maintain your mortgage payments, either now or in the future, talk to a mortgage adviser in your Bank of Ireland branch, or call our dedicated mortgage line on (01) 6113333.

Bank of Ireland
Telephone (01) 6113333
http://www.bankofireland.ie/

Irish Bankers Federation
The IBF has developed a website that provides independent information and advice for homeowners who are experiencing difficulty with their mortgage payments, and for those who anticipate problems in the future. This site also contains the 'IBF Pledge to Homeowners'.
http://www.helpinghomeowners.ie/

Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS)
Telephone 1890 283 438
http://www.mabs.ie/

Working together to manage debt
This document, developed by the IBF and MABS, sets out how creditors and money advisers work in partnership to help people to manage debt.

Financial Regulator
The Financial Regulator's website provides independent information on financial products and includes the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears Telephone 1890 777 777
http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/

Citizens Information
The Citizens Information Board is the statutory body which supports the provision of information, advice and advocacy on a broad range of public and social services including health, employment, social welfare and money.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/

Social Welfare
This website provides information relating to job seekers allowance, mortgage interest supplement and other welfare benefits you may be eligible for.
http://www.welfare.ie/

Office of the Revenue Commissioners
This website will provide you with information on all tax credits and benefits you may be entitled to.
http://www.revenue.ie/

In the case of an interest only mortgage

Please note: by selecting a mortgage repayment restructure option, you may need to amend your existing mortgage protection policy for the revised term of the loan.

Early repayment

In the case of a fixed rate loan, in the event of early repayment of the Loan in whole or in part for any reason, or conversion to a variable interest rate, or other fixed rate within the initial fixed rate period or any further or subsequent fixed rate period, the Borrower shall pay a sum to be calculated in accordance with the following formula (Amount x (R-R1) x Time) divided by 36500 and for the purposes of this formula, the variables are defined as follows: 'Amount' means the average balance of the amount repaid early or converted from the date of repayment or conversion to the end of the fixed rate term, allowing for scheduled repayments; in the case of an endowment loan, this will equal the full amount of the early repayment or conversion. 'R' means the cost of funds for the Bank for the fixed rate period as incorporated in the existing interest rate applying to the loan. 'R1' means the interest rate available to the Bank for funds placed in the money market on the date of early repayment or conversion for the remainder of the relevant fixed rate period. "Time" means the number of days from the date of early repayment or conversion to the end of the relevant fixed rate period.

Arrears

Any sum not paid by its due date is subject to an additional interest rate charge at the rate of 0.5% per month or part of month (i.e. 6.00% per annum), subject to a minimum of €2.54 per month, from the due date until payment.

This additional interest charge is intended to cover the Bank's increased administration and related charges due to the Borrower's default. Full details of this charge are set out in the loan agreement with you.

Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank is a member of Bank of Ireland Group. Bank of Ireland and Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank, trading as Bank of Ireland Mortgages are regulated by the Financial Regulator.