Asking for a payment suspension

With a payment suspension, the people you owe money to (or creditors) put your regular debt payments on hold. This short period of time helps you get things back on track.

Your budget shows you need all your money for living costs. Like food, housing and energy bills. You should pay these before any debt payments.

The people you owe money to cannot make you pay them if you are not able to. You first need to ask for a payment suspension, so they can agree to it.

This is not a long-term way to deal with debts. You will still need to pay back what you owe at some point.

Let us know if you want to talk about a long-term solution to deal with your debts. We will look at your situation together and find the best way forward for you.

Things you need to know about suspending your payments

Interest and charges may be stopped:

• Interest and charges may stop being added to your debt. Most creditors will do this, but some may not. They do not have to stop adding these costs to your debts

Please be aware:

• Your creditors may still ask you to make payments. You do not have to pay more than you can afford
• Your creditors can still add interest and charges to your debts
• You need to pay back what you owe, at some point. Suspending payments is not a long-term option
• This will affect your credit file
• If you have a joint debt with someone else, the creditor will ask this person to keep paying. Creditors could take action against both of you if payments are not made. It may affect the other person's credit file.

Find out more about how payment suspension can affect your credit file.

How does it work?

You should ask your creditors for a payment suspension while you think about how to deal with your debts.

There is a good chance your creditors will say yes if you follow the steps below.

Don't worry. We will tell you what to do if they say no.

Ask your creditors for a payment suspension with the example letter in the section 'Your Next Steps' of your personal action plan.

If your situation improves, we can look at other, long-term options to deal with your debts.

What are the benefits of suspending your payments?

• Most creditors will agree to stop adding interest and charges to your debts. They do not have to do this though. They might keep adding them

What are the risks of suspending your payments?

• Your creditors might still ask you to pay what you owe. But you do not have to pay more than you can afford
• Your creditors can still add interest and charges to your debts and take action against you
• Your debts will need to be paid at some point. This means it is not a long-term debt solution
• It will cause you to miss payments to your debts. This will affect your credit file and may make it harder to get credit later on

Important information about suspending your payments

Let us know if you can pay more. We will update your budget and work out what you can afford. We can then talk about other ways to pay back what you owe.

What debts can be included in a payment suspension?

You can ask to suspend payments to your less important debts, there are unsecured debts. These are things like credit cards, loans, and overdrafts.

You could also ask to suspend payments on any priority arrears you have. These are any overdue, missed payments on:

• Secured debts. Like mortgages, secured loans and hire purchase on vehicles
• Utilities. Like council tax or rates, water, gas and electricity bills

You should not ask to suspend your important, priority payments.

For example. If you have missed one month of your mortgage payments, you may be paying extra to catch up. You can ask for these extra amounts to be suspended. But you cannot ask for your usual mortgage payments to be suspended.