Re-negotiating existing mortgage

[markod]

Our 10 year old tracker mortgage on our home currently stands at €300K and costs ~€2.1K per month to service. The LTV is conservatively around 40% and the remaining term is 17 years. I'm 42.

It looks like there's a good chance I'll be made redundant in the next few months and would imagine that I won't be returning to work for some months at least.

Our main concern is reducing the monthly payments so that we can afford them from my wife's wages, social welfare payments and a contribution from our savings. Once the market recovers to anything like normal we plan to sell and downsize, probably like half the country!

What would be the best option to reduce the monthly payments:

1. Negotiate with the bank to pay interest only for a while?
2. Extend the term to 20 or even 25 years, given that we plan to sell in the mid-term anyway?
3. A.N. Other...

If the bank agreed to interest only, how much would the monthly repayments typically drop to (%) and how long would they be likely agree to sustain the interest only period?

If there are other options all ideas would be gratefully received...

Thanks

 

[Senna]

You can use this mortgage calculator to see what your repayments would be if interest only or if you extend the term;

http://www.drcalculator.com/mortgage/

Is it a ten year discount tracker or is it a 10 year fixed rate? has your repayments went down in the last 6 months with the reductions in the ECB?

 

[markod]

Repayments have gone down in line with ECB reductions. Payments have been fairly easy to accommodate in the past but if I'm out of work we'll struggle.

Thanks for link...