Can't Afford My Bond Payment



Can't Afford My Bond Payment


Are you struggling to keep up to date with your bond payment? This can be an absolute nightmare and if you make the wrong decision, you can sink yourself financially for many years to come.

I can't emphasise strongly enough that you must act quickly and early to sort out this kind of situation. Once you've skipped a few bond payments, you will be in a much weaker position to negotiate a positive outcome.

So if you see that you are heading for trouble - you've lost your job, or had some unexpected expense - whatever the case may be, don't leave things until you're stuck with a situation where you've actually run out of money. The best time to act is a few months before you finally run into financial trouble.

If you aren't sure what you should be doing, there is an excellent little web page on Nedbank's website, where you can run the numbers and see which option you should be considering.

At the bottom of the page is a table which shows you the benefits and disadvantages of the six options typically available to a bondholder who is in arrears or going to be skipping bond payments.

The six options are:

  • Pay Back Arrears
  • Restructure your Bond - involves increasing the term over which you pay the bond - this costs more in the long run but can give you the short term break you need (and of course there's nothing stopping you paying more again later on if / when your affordability changes for the better)
  • Assisted Sale - Glorified terminology for what is essentially a foreclosure (but done more courteously).
  • Private Sale - This is where you sell your house quick before the bank cottons on to your chaotic finances. Hopefully you can sell it for more than what you owe, else you'll be liable for the shortfall.
  • Debt Counselling - This is an option for over indebted South Africans. It is not a panacea for your financial woes and needs to be entered with great care. More information HERE.
  • Legal Route - Creditor comes after you legally.
Once you've reviewed the options, there is a very nice application at the bottom of the page that allows you to run the numbers specific to your own financial circumstances and shows you what your options are. Don't miss it!



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