Koodoo launch Mortgage Payment Holiday tool
Mar 2020
Mortgage technology venture Koodoo has collaborated with major lenders to launch a purpose-built Website and technology toolkit offering consumer guidance on payment holidays during the Covid-19 outbreak.
With bank call centres overwhelmed by queries from worried customers, Koodoo has brought together lenders, price comparison sites, brokers and trade bodies to develop a free personalised digital tool hosted at https://mortgageholiday.co.uk.
Using the site consumers will be able to:
• Access content and FAQs related to mortgage payment holidays
• Understand their lender’s guidance on mortgage payment holidays
• Select how long they would like a payment holiday for
• See an individual, personalised payment holiday illustration
o i.e. what their payments will look like for the next 3 months, how they will increase after the payment holiday relative to what they pay now, and what the overall cost of this is
• Apply for a payment holiday with their lender
Initially available at mortgageholiday.co.uk, the tool will also be distributed by ClearScore, Compare The Market, Confused.com, Money.co.uk, The Times and Which?
Developed with input from the regulator and trade bodies, it is expected that many banks and building societies will also embed a branded version of the tool on their own websites.
Seb McDermott, Koodoo CEO and co-founder, says: “At this difficult time, it’s vital that consumers have the support they need to make the right decisions about their mortgage and understand the options available from their lender. We mobilised the Koodoo team and digital mortgage platform to help and have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from lenders, consumer sites, brokers, the regulator and the fintech community.”
The collaborative industry effort is also evident in the credit scoring sector, as rival agencies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion band together to ensure that consumer credit scores will be protected, when people have agreed ‘payment holidays’ with their lenders..
The three bureaus are implementing a special measure called an ’emergency payment freeze’, ensuring that an individual’s current credit score is maintained or frozen for the duration of an agreed payment holiday.