Can’t Pay Your Mortgage Due to COVID-19? Here is an Option For You!

If your income has dropped due to the current crisis or if you may have had a loss of a job, you may have options for mortgage relief. As full disclosure, what I helped my mother do is not guaranteed to work for you and your family, as everyone’s situation is different.

My mother owns a home in Mililani Town, Oahu, and she has 3 children (including myself). A few weeks back, she was working full-time at a bakery store, which recently had to close due to the coronavirus shutdown order. She has bills to pay from phone bills, groceries, car payment, and the largest expense being her mortgage.

Communicate with your Mortgage Company

Mortgage lenders and banks understand that life can bring unexpected circumstances, and they’re always helpful. Many lenders are willing to help. From what I know, there are banks who are letting borrowers defer mortgage payments for a number of months during this unexpected crisis, and the late payments will not be counted as “delinquent,” meaning they won’t report the late payments to the major credit bureaus. However, we have to make sure to understand that the payments on those loans may accrue interest until it’s paid.

If you have any problems with your home mortgage, the first thing you should do is to communicate with your mortgage company and ask for help.

For my mother, these are the steps that I took, but please make sure to conduct further research as your situation may be different.

How to Appy for Financial Assistance

Step 1: Visit the First Hawaiian Bank website. This is where you can request for First Hawaiian Bank’s Financial Assistance.

Step 2: Apply for Financial Assistance by clicking on the button located on the left-bottom corner of the website.

Click on the button beside it to find the most updated information

Step 3: Fill out the form located on the “financial assistance“ page that you are directed to. It should look like this:

Step 4: Fill out the form and submit. 

It is very kind of financial institutions to allow us to not pay mortgage during this time by being understanding about people’s financial situation. Especially because of the COVID-19, coronavirus pandemic caused many people in Hawaii to lose their jobs and has made it difficult to people to pay their mortgage.

The great news is if anyone qualifies for financial assistance, the interest on the mortgage will not accrue during this time of hardship. According to the representatives whom I spoke to over the phone, this financial assistance is only available at this time, and there is no scheduled deadline as of today, April 01, 2020. They mentioned that they started this a few weeks ago, and they look forward to helping the people who are in need of their mortgage payments.