Money Worries

Please tell us if you’re struggling to make payments to your Swift mortgage or secured loan.

Contacting us won’t impact your credit score.

We realise that your circumstances may change, and that may affect your ability to make your agreed payments. We appreciate, not least, that higher energy bills and household costs may be making life difficult. If you’re worried about making payments to Swift, read on for some useful information and don’t hesitate to contact us for help and support.

Don’t wait until you have missed a payment – we are ready to help even if all your payments are up to date.

How to get in touch

Please call us on 01277 359678 and we will try to help you (lines are open 9am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 8am – 12pm Saturday).

If you are worried about the cost of the call, let us know and we will call you right back.

You can write to us: Arcadia House, Warley Hill Business Park, The Drive, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 3BE

You can send us an email: info@swift.co.uk

Please note – we can only reply directly to your email once you have confirmed your email address with us over the phone, or in writing. We cannot guarantee the security or confidentiality of any unencrypted email communications.

What to do if you can’t make your monthly payment?

Most importantly, talk to us. We want to help you. Talking to us about your circumstances will have no impact on your credit score.

Work out your budget. Think about your spending, split your outgoings into essential and non-essential items. You may find you can make changes to save you money. To help with this, you can download our Income and Expenditure Form here. Completing this will show how much you have left each month to put towards your outstanding debts. We can help you complete an Income and Expenditure Form over the phone if that would be easier.

See if you are getting all the state benefits or tax credits you are entitled to. These might increase your income. You can find details here.

If you have other debts, prioritise your debts. It is important that you understand what the consequences of not paying each debt are. Priority debts are those that have the most serious consequences if you miss payments e.g., they could result in you losing your home or essential services. These include mortgage and secured loan payments, rent and council tax, child support and maintenance payments, and gas and electricity payments. Non-priority debts include personal loans, overdrafts, credit cards, store cards, and money lent by family or friends.

Seek free, independent advice. There are organisations who can provide you with free, impartial guidance on debt, money, and housing matters. The organisations we’ve detailed here offer support with no charge, and with no impact on your credit file.

Speak to everyone involved in paying your mortgage or secured loan. It is important that everyone understands what is happening.

Get help from a friend. If it would help, we’d be happy to speak to a friend or family member on your behalf. Just complete and return a Third Party Authority form to give us permission to speak to your nominated person. You can download a form here or let us know and we can send you one in the post.

If you’d like us to accept payments from someone else on your behalf, we first need to complete certain checks to confirm their identity. Call us to discuss this.

When you speak to us

If you have either missed a payment, or think you might struggle to make your next payment, please call us. The sooner you get in touch, the sooner we can help you.

To see how best we can help, we will:

Ask about your current circumstances, including whether you are working.
Seek to understand why you can’t afford payments (e.g., a loss of income, separation, an unexpected expense).
Help set out your income and spending to see what you can afford to pay. You can download an Income and Expenditure form here or we can take your details when we speak.
Ask if you have taken any advice. If so, it is important that you tell us what you have been advised to do.
Talk about what support may be available to you. This will depend on your individual circumstances. Support options may include the following:

A payment arrangement to maintain your monthly payment and repay any missed payments over an affordable period
Making reduced payments for a period based upon what you can afford until your situation changes
A temporary period of Interest Only payments, so you are paying less than your monthly payment
Changing the date on which you make payments to reflect when you receive your income
Further time beyond the expiry date of your loan to repay any balance remaining outstanding at the end of term
Time to allow you to get independent debt advice
Including any missed payments in your overall loan balance so that the arrears are paid over the remaining term of your loan, called ‘capitalisation’
Adjusting your interest rate for an agreed period to make monthly payments more affordable
Allowing you time to either remortgage or sell your property to repay the outstanding balance on your loan

Not all options are suitable or available for everyone. We will explain the options available and what any proposed support option would mean for you. We will also explain the impact of any arrangement on your mortgage balance and credit file. Where we report loan arrears to credit reference agencies, this could impact your future borrowing ability or increase the cost of it.
Update your contact details so we can keep in regular contact. This is important as we will regularly review any support that we have agreed to ensure it remains suitable.
Seek to understand if you have any health conditions which are impacting on your finances or ability to deal with your finances.

Remember, talking to us about your circumstances and options will have no impact on your credit score.

We can’t offer advice or help with any credit commitments or outstanding debts you may have with other organisations. We’ve provided details of some free, impartial organisations that can help you here.