Credit score guarantee for Covid-19 mortgage holiday borrowers

Credit scores of borrowers who take Covid-19 payment holidays will be protected under special measures announced today by the credit reference agencies.

The government pledged to provide the three-month deferral to anyone who was worried they may not be able to pay their mortgage because of impact of coronavirus.

But there has been widespread concern amongst those borrowers keen to use the ‘holiday’ that their credit score might suffer as a result.

Today’s assurance from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion – the UK Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs) – will come as a relief for the many borrowers who were worried the break would leave a black mark on their credit file.

The CRAs announced they would be applying an ‘emergency payment freeze’, a special measure to ensure an individual’s current credit score is protected for the duration of an agreed payment holiday.

Jonathan Westley, chief data officer at Experian said: “These are challenging times. While everyone is rightly focused on staying safe and healthy, we know that many people are also concerned about the impact on their income.

“If you’re worried about meeting regular payments because of the pandemic, it is crucial that you speak to your lenders and other providers as soon as possible so they can help.”

The emergency payment freeze also covers other forms of credit where lenders make special arrangements on payments due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will apply to reduced payments, paused payments or increased limits.

Important: speak to your lender

It is vital borrowers speak to their lender and formally arrange the ‘mortgage holiday’ in order to receive the protection. Simply cancelling the direct debit and not paying the monthly instalments will appear as a default on your credit file.

Experian said there may have been cases where people had been tempted to cancel the direct debit because they could not get through to their lender due to volume of calls.

It said it ‘strongly discouraged’ pausing payments without agreeing first with your lender or provider. Unauthorised missed payments were bad news for credit scores and it would impact your chances of getting credit in the future.