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Mortgage Forbearance, Repayment Plans, and Loan Modifications

Mortgage assistance can mean postponing a payment, catching up over time, or changing the loan itself. Those choices have different consequences after the immediate crisis passes. Ask how unpaid amounts will be handled, what the later payment will be, and whether any new obligation is being added before accepting a proposal.

The questions below use selected Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance, adapted and organized by Fynoptic. Source links and the dates displayed by those sources are provided at the end.

What is mortgage forbearance?

Forbearance is a process that can help if you’re struggling to pay your mortgage. Your servicer or lender arranges for you to temporarily pause mortgage payments or make smaller payments. You still owe the full amount, and you pay back the difference later.

Forbearance can help you deal with a financial hardship. For example, forbearance can be helpful if your home was damaged in a natural disaster, you had unexpected medical costs, or you lost your job. Forbearance does not erase or decrease the amount you owe on your mortgage. You have to repay any missed or reduced payments.

How to request mortgage forbearance

Call your mortgage servicer and let them know your situation immediately. Ask them what forbearance or hardship options may be available.

Some mortgage servicers have a requirement that forbearance or hardship assistance must be requested within a specified amount of time after a disaster or other qualifying event.

Mortgage forbearance options

Forbearance is complicated. There isn’t a “one size fits all” answer, because the options depend on many factors. Explain your situation to your mortgage servicer, and ask them for the options available to you. Keep asking questions until you understand:

  • The amount you must pay, and for how long payments are paused or reduced
  • How interest accrues during that time
  • When and how you pay back the paused or reduced amounts

Paused payments, repaid after forbearance ends

Your servicer lets you stop making payments for a specified number of months. Then, you pay the whole amount back at once when your payments restart.

What to consider:

  • You owe a big bill that comes due at one time
  • Interest on the paused amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Paused payments, paid back at the end of the mortgage

Your servicer lets you pause payments for a specified number of months. Then, the amount is repaid either by adding more payments at the end of your mortgage loan, or by taking out a new loan.

What to consider:

  • Adding the missed payments at the end of your loan means your mortgage could extend longer than the original term
  • Repaying the missed payments with a new loan means that at the end of your mortgage term, you have to pay back the new loan all at once
  • Interest on the missed amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Payment reduction, repaid during the mortgage term

Your servicer lets you reduce your monthly mortgage payment for a specified number of months. When the time is up, you spread out your repayments and pay them back by increasing your monthly payment.

What to consider:

  • The amount of the reduction is spread out over a specified number of months and added to your mortgage payment for those months, so your monthly payment increases during that period
  • Interest on any reduced amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Where to find help with mortgage forbearance

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-certified housing counselors can discuss options with you if you're having trouble paying your mortgage or managing your reverse mortgage. Find a housing counselor

If you have a reverse mortgage, you can contact a reverse mortgage housing counseling agency or default counseling agency approved by HUD.

If you’re facing foreclosure or have been served with legal papers, there could be resources to assist you through your local bar association or legal aid. If you are a servicemember, contact your local Legal Assistance Office.

What is a repayment plan on a mortgage?

A repayment plan is an agreement between you and your lender to make up missed mortgage loan payments by adding part of the past-due amount to your regular payments over a period of time.

If you are behind on your mortgage payments, your lender or servicer may allow you to enter into a repayment plan. With a repayment plan, you pay more on your monthly payment to make up for the payments you missed. Before choosing a repayment plan, make sure you understand the requirements of the plan and whether you will be able to make the new payments. Your lender or servicer may consider your loan delinquent until you repay all of your missed payments, and may still report your delinquency to the credit reporting agencies including how soon they might be able to start foreclosure.

Don’t sign anything until you’re sure you understand what you are agreeing to do. If you cannot afford the repayment plan, your lender or servicer might have other options available to help you resolve your delinquency.

If you have been in mortgage forbearance, a repayment plan might be one option once you have completed your forbearance period.

If you have questions, you can use the CFPB's "Find a Counselor" tool to get a list of housing counseling agencies in your area that are approved by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). You can also get free help from a housing expert by calling the HOPE™ Hotline , open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at (888) 995-HOPE (4673).

Learn more about how to avoid foreclosure.

What is a mortgage loan modification?

A mortgage loan modification is a change in your loan terms. The modification is a type of loss mitigation.

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Tip

Carefully consider what kind of modification best addresses your needs. If you receive a loan modification and you still can’t make the payments, you may lose your home. If you’d like to learn more about your options, talk to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counseling agency. Call the CFPB at (855) 411-CFPB (2372) to be connected to a trained housing counselor.

The modification can reduce your monthly payment to an amount you can afford.

Modifications may involve extending the number of years you have to repay the loan, reducing your interest rate, and/or forbearing or reducing your principal balance.

If you are offered a loan modification, be sure you know how it will change your monthly payments and the total amount that you will owe in the short-term and the long-term.

Worried about foreclosure?

For more information about how to avoid foreclosure, use our checklist. If you are facing imminent foreclosure or have been served with legal papers, you may also need to consult an attorney.

My servicer offered me a shared appreciation mortgage as a means of modification. What does that mean?

Under a shared appreciation mortgage, you agree to give your lender a share of any increase in the value of your home.

Depending on how your home value changes over time, the lender's share of the value of your home might be worth more than the balance you owe on the loan. Because you give up part of your future gains, the interest rate and monthly payments on your loan will typically be lower than the market rate for other types of loans. The lender will collect its part of the increase in your home value when the loan is repaid.

If I can’t pay my mortgage loan, what are my options?

If you can’t pay your mortgage or are worried about missing a mortgage payment, call your mortgage servicer right away. You should also contact a HUD-approved housing counseling agency to get free, expert assistance on avoiding foreclosure.

How to get options if I can't pay my mortgage loan

First, call your mortgage servicer

Find the telephone number for your mortgage servicer by looking on your monthly mortgage loan statement, in your mortgage loan coupon book from your lender, or on your mortgage servicer’s website. If you don’t know the name of your mortgage servicer, contact a HUD-approved housing counseling agency for help.

When you call your mortgage servicer, be prepared to explain:

  • Why you are unable to make your payment
  • Whether the problem is temporary or permanent
  • Details about your income, expenses and other assets like cash in the bank
  • If you are a servicemember and have received permanent change of station (PCS) orders (this is important to mention, because you could qualify for loss mitigation options because of your military move)

Fill out a mortgage assistance application, if your servicer gives you one

Many mortgage servicers have programs to help people avoid foreclosure. Your mortgage servicer assesses your application and considers the options that could be available to you. They tell you what loss mitigation options, if any, they can offer you.

Call a HUD-approved housing counseling agency

Through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), you can find an agency to help you. The counselor can:

  • Discuss your situation and whether you qualify for any programs or additional help
  • Help you understand the loss mitigation options your servicer offers and which options might work best for you
  • Guide you through the process of working with your servicer and any other programs and paperwork you may need
  • Help you at little or no cost with budgeting, credit card debt, or other money problems that may be making it hard to pay your mortgage

Look up a HUD-approved housing counseling agency in your area. Or, call the HOPE™ Hotline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at (888) 995-HOPE (4673).

If you are facing imminent foreclosure or have been served with legal papers, you might also need to consult an attorney.

Tip

Use our checklist for more information on how to avoid foreclosure.

What options might be available?

Some options that your servicer might make available include:

Watch out for scams

A HUD-approved housing counseling agency can help you figure out which available options may work best for you. You don’t have to pay anyone to help you avoid foreclosure. The help you need is available at no cost to you from your servicer, or through a HUD-approved housing counseling agency.

Foreclosure scammers might tell you they’ll save your home from foreclosure, when they’re really just taking your money.

Watch for these scam warning signs:

  • You’re asked to pay upfront for help
  • The company guarantees it will get the terms of your mortgage changed
  • The company guarantees you won’t lose your home
  • You’re asked to sign over title to your home or to sign other documents you don’t understand
  • You’re instructed to send your payment to someone other than your mortgage company or servicer
  • The company offers to do a “forensic audit”
  • You’re told to stop paying your mortgage
  • The company says they’re affiliated with the government, or uses a logo that looks like a government seal but is slightly different

Sources and further reading

The CFPB source passages are U.S. government work in the public domain. Fynoptic has selected, organized, and adapted the material for this guide, including corrections identified through the additional sources listed above. Sources accessed October 27, 2026. This use does not imply agency endorsement or affiliation.

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