Extend your mortgage term

Are you finding it challenging to afford your mortgage payments? You could reduce how much you pay each month by extending your mortgage term.

If you extend the term of your mortgage, you’ll be paying it off for longer and will ultimately pay more interest. So, if you can keep your mortgage to its original term, you should do so.

Am I eligible?

To be eligible to extend your mortgage term you must:

  • Be a residential mortgage customer (that is, you live in the home you’re paying a mortgage on, rather than renting it out)
  • Be on a repayment or part repayment mortgage (please check your mortgage terms if you’re not sure)
  • Not have any arrears on your mortgage (arrears means you are behind in your mortgage payments)
  • Not be looking to extend beyond your expected retirement age (Maximum age 70)

What is a mortgage term extension?

Your mortgage term is the entire length of time you are set to pay off your mortgage in full. For example, 25 or 30 years. Extending your mortgage term means you are increasing this period beyond your original agreement.

How will this affect my payments?

Extending your mortgage term means you'll pay less each month, as you'll have a longer period in which to repay your balance. However, you will pay more interest over the full term of the mortgage. This is because your balance won't decrease as quickly and will remain outstanding for longer.

The following example shows how payments would change if you were to extend your mortgage term by 10 years with an interest rate at 6%.

  • Original monthly repayment is £1,100.00
  • After 10-year extension agreed, monthly repayment is £716.00

You would end up paying more interest than you would have under your original plan. If your circumstances change in the future, you can contact us to look at the options available and consider reducing your term.

Repayment calculator

Try our repayment calculator to see how extending your mortgage term might change your monthly repayments. You just need to have to hand the following details:

  • The current interest rate of your mortgage
  • Your current remaining mortgage balance - you can find this out by logging onto Skipton Online or our app and viewing your mortgage balance
  • The term you currently have left on your mortgage

What happens after six months?

If you decide to go ahead with a term extension, we’ll write to you during the final month of your arrangement to give you the option to return to your original mortgage term. If anything changes before the review date, and you’d like to reverse your new term, you’ll need to contact us.

We won't provide advice or suggest any course of action as being suitable for your needs. If you haven't already done so, you should seek independent debt advice. You might also find it useful to visit our information page for members experiencing mortgage payment difficulties.

Support if you’re having mortgage payment difficulties.

Extend my mortgage term online

To extend your mortgage term you will need to complete the Change of Term Mortgage Charter form.

You should know first that you won’t be protected under the FCA rules of assessing suitability. This means you will not be eligible to claim for compensation under the advice element of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection.

 

Request mortgage extension

Frequently asked questions

In line with the government Mortgage Charter, choosing to either extend your mortgage term or switch to Interest Only payments for six months will not require a new affordability check or affect your credit score. You can find more information on our Credit Scoring Guide [PDF].

Your credit file is only impacted if you miss a full monthly payment.

You will be able to find your current mortgage balance by logging onto your Skipton Online account. If you prefer, you can use our app and select your mortgage on screen.

Alternatively, you can call our general mortgage team on 0345 850 1711.

No, you can only take one option.

You will be able to change back to your original term type within six months, with no affordability check and no credit file impact. 

For Interest Only transfers, at six months we'll convert your mortgage back to its original payment method. We’ll recalculate your monthly payment based on the outstanding balance and remaining term at the same time.

When your Interest Only arrangement ends, your monthly payment will be higher than it was before the arrangement. This is to make sure you repay the mortgage balance by the end of the term. 

Please contact us on 0345 607 9817.