What Should You Do If You Can’t Pay Your Mortgage

couple thinking to buy a house

If you can’t afford your mortgage payment, it can be a massively stressful time in your life. Not only are you highly likely to incur some penalty fees, and it’s also likely to have a big effect on your credit score, there’s also the big concern that you could end up losing your home. Here’s a look at some of the steps you can take to help if you find you can’t pay your mortgage this month.

Take out a short term loan

The first thing you should consider when you can’t pay your loan is whether there are alternative methods of raising funds. One of the quickest ways of being able to get more money into your bank account is to take out a short term loan. 

These loans can provide you with the money you need to cover your mortgage payment and send it directly to your bank account within an hour. Then you can spread the repayments of this loan over several months. 

Most short-term loans allow you to borrow the money for a maximum of 12 months. This means you can choose whether to pay large amounts each month to pay off the loan quickly or spread the cost over more months to reduce the monthly cost.

next mortgage payment

Reduce your other overheads

Once you’ve paid your current mortgage payment, it’s time to start considering how you’ll be able to afford your next mortgage payment. If this month was just a temporary blip in your finances, maybe caused by an unexpected but brief loss in shifts at work or having to pay out on a big expense, you may not need to take any action at all. 

If it looks like you’re going to have the same problems next month, consider whether you can increase the money in your bank by reducing the amount you spend. One of the biggest outgoings every month can be our bills. 

Whilst there’s very little you can do to reduce the cost of your mortgage payments unless you take out a new mortgage, check whether you could be paying less for other bills like your gas and electricity. By entering your details into a website like Compare the Market or Go Compare, you could see whether you could be paying less for the exact same energy usage.

Consider if you can free up some cash by selling things you don’t use

If you find you can’t reduce your bills, consider whether there are any items that you could sell to make some money instead. Look around all the rooms in your home and consider whether there are any items that you haven’t actually used in months or even years. 

Whilst you might think they’re outdated and worthless, you could find that they’re exactly the level of technology that someone else is looking for. Simply take lots of photos of the product and list them either on a social media selling page or an online auction website like eBay. 

Once they’re sold, you’ll get the cash for them quickly, especially if you sell them in person via social media. See this guide from for more advice on selling via Ebay.

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