When you can finally afford a house and are looking for financing, you may have some questions. Can I pay a mortgage? What happens if one day you can’t pay? If one day I lose it, how can my family continue to pay the mortgage so I don’t lose the house?
Don’t worry, it’s common to have questions and no one can answer exactly why. We never know what the future will bring us. But although we cannot guarantee that you will always be able to pay your mortgage, we can give you some tips to help you be calmer when you take out your first mortgage:
Check the conditions of your mortgage:
Not all mortgages are the same, so it is important to carefully read the conditions offered by the bank and your needs before signing a mortgage. The first thing to decide is whether you want a fixed-rate mortgage (where the amount to be paid does not change over time), or a variable rate, whose terms will vary depending on the Euribor, which will increase or decrease your payments on a regular basis. Adjustable-rate mortgages are less secure, but they are better priced than fixed-rate mortgages, and banks generally have lower signing terms for adjustable-rate mortgages than for fixed-rate mortgages. (Because in these cases the signing of the loan may be linked to an “obligation to contract other services such as accounts or insurance”).
Choose a mortgage that offers you the lowest interest rate regardless of your obligation to contract certain products with the bank (many mortgages offer discounts on interest rates if you contract certain services with an entity. However, in this case keep in mind , if one day you decide to cancel them, interest can increase substantially), which will not force you to pay excessive commissions.
The better the terms of your mortgage, the more security you will have. so you can pay on time.
Negotiate the terms of your mortgage:
The conditions of the loans are not “engraved in stone”, so it is advisable to always buy all the options offered by the bank and negotiate before signing any contract. During the negotiation phase, you can try to get the entity to improve your rate, totally or partially eliminate the commissions you charge for opening the loan or other commissions, such as early repayment (this is when you decide to prepay part of your mortgage in a certain situation). amount) time), or improve the conditions of related products (for example, deduct commissions from your payroll).
Consult the exact conditions offered by the entity and compare them with other mortgages on the market to try to force banks to improve them.
One piece of advice: it is always easier to negotiate with your bank when the risk office approves your mortgage, and better if several entities already do so.
The better you are at negotiating a mortgage, the less extra you will have to pay. Which will help you pay more securely on time.
Choose quality life insurance linked to mortgage payments:
When taking out a mortgage, banks will generally require you to purchase life insurance. However, it is not necessary to take out life insurance recommended by your bank. However, the new Mortgage Loan Law, passed in 2019 to protect consumers from some bank abuses, makes it clear that you are free to choose the life insurance you want to rent. Thus, you can easily analyze which are the best mortgage-related life insurance policies, what coverage they offer you and what the price is, and rent the one that suits you best.
Purchasing mortgage-related life insurance will guarantee a missed payment in this situation.
Remember, you will always have options:
If you’re afraid to think about what will happen if one day you can’t pay your mortgage, remember that in the worst case scenario, you always have options to apply.
Apply for a partial or total grace period on the mortgage (for example, ask the bank to allow you to not pay payments for a certain period), extend the payment period (loan term) to reduce the costs of payments, renegotiate and offer you a better deal or develop a debt restructuring plan Another brick and mortar home loan may be some of these options.
In addition, the new mortgage law extends the foreclosure period (the process that precedes the foreclosure of a home for non-payment of installments), so it will not be activated in a loan if the non-payment is up to 12 months. the first semester, or a delay of up to 15 months, if the payment is due in the second semester. So if one day you do not pay your mortgage, you have a period to recover before the problem worsens.
