Recent data suggested that the credit crunch may last longer than people thought (or hoped)
The cost of borrowing wholesale money over two years has increased to over 6%. 1% higher than base rates. This is the biggest spread for almost 4 years and a sign of the shortage of liquidity and reluctance to lend
This increase in two year interest rates will directly affect the cost of fixed rate mortgages. Banks will also be forced to continue rationing mortgages and mortgage products for the foreseeable future.
See: Credit Crunch explained
Credit Crisis 2008
Understanding subprime crisis
Yes, a missed payment on a mortgage, loan or credit card will adversely affect your credit rating. However, it may be possible to mitigate the adverse credit rating affect. Firstly, on realising you have missed a payment, contact your bank and make sure the payment is paid. Secondly, write or speak to the bank, explaining why your payment is late. Maybe there was a problem with the post; alternatively there could have been some misunderstanding on the due date. If you explain your circumstances the banks may be more generous than you expect and write it off as a mistake. However, there is only a certain number of times you can get away with this. If you repeatedly miss payments they will stop accepting excuses about delays in the post.
Also, it is worth bearing in mind, that if it is only a few days late many financial institutions will not let it count against you,
If you do miss a payment it can count against you for upto 6 years. If you have only one missed payment, it will be unlikely to stop you getting most loans. However, if you have a history of missed payments then it will become increasingly difficult to get loans. As a consequence, you may end up only able to get high interest bearing loans from adverse credit specialists.
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