I heard recently about what seems an excellent source of independent advice for anyone with mortgage payment problems. My informant in this case was that much-hyped, but also much-maligned, social networking and microblogging service: Twitter.
Twitter the time-waster?
Many people (including many of my friends) are scornful of Twitter, calling it nothing more than a self-indulgent waste of time and / or a gossip-mill. I used to be one of them.
However, now that I use Twitter more-or-less regularly, I find it worth the effort of keeping up with the sure, there is some rubbish on there. But if I see that one of the people I “follow” tells me nothing more interesting than where they went for coffee or what movie they planned to see tonight, then I hit that useful button called “unfollow”. For those of you who find themselves swamped with “too much information” but who have never found the “unfollow” button, that’ll be because it is not obvious. If you are following sometone who flooding your timeline with dross, find their profile and you’ll see a large green icon with a tick, and the word “following”. Simply hover your cursor over that icon and the green changes to red amnd the word “unfollow” appears. Simply click and hey presto, that person is now an ex-followee.
Twitter the information goldmine?
On the positive side, and I do like to be positive, the amount of useful stuff I have first heard about on Twitter has been massive.
Many (but by no means all) of the people I follow are financial journalists or related experts. Some of them are household names and they appear regularly on TV talking about the national economic situation, such as Paul Mason; some write for the newspapers; some are independent advisers.
YouGov guide for hard-pressed mortgage-holders
One of these very journalists recently recommended on his Twitter feed a very useful guide for hard-pressed mortgage-holders. It is published by those helpful people at YouGov (i.e. the government). So I think you’d have to agree it is free of commercial bias.
I have to admit that I can’t remember who recommended this guide, otherwise I’d give him or her a credit. And as it was a week or so back, trawling through my Twitter feed to find this particular recommendation would take too long. Moreover it would keep me from an important task; switching on the TV at 2 pm to watch Shane Williams’ last international rugby match:Walesv.Australiaat the Millennium Stadium. Bound to be an emotional occasion; however the famously competitive Australians are unlikely to cooperate by making it easy for him to cap his career with (yet another) try.
PS: the result went against Wales, in the event. As a keen supporter of that country’s rugby, I have to admit that the scoreline flattered them slightly, because the aforementioned and surely legendary Shane Williams skipped out of a tackle and ran in for a try in the final minute (in fact the 81st) of his final match for Wales. You couldn’t have scripted it better and from the crowd’s reaction you’d have thought that Wales had won the World Cup at that moment.
Citizens Advice Guide
Finally: I would suggest that this YouGov guide should be read in conjunction with the excellent information and personal advice available from Citizens Advice (the CAB).
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For “Mortgages and repossessions: a YouGov guide”, go to:
Topics covered:
Struggling with your mortgage payments? Put together a simple action plan to help you keep your home
What you can do to avoid repossession – a guide
What you can do if you are facing repossession to make sure you keep your home
Mortgage advice – who to see and what to take
Where to get advice about managing housing costs and how your lender may be able to help you manage your mortgage payments
What to do if your mortgage lender takes you to court
What to do if your lender takes action to repossess your home, and how repossession can be postponed
Housing advice – how to get free legal help in court
Make sure you attend your court hearing and find out how to get free legal help on the day
This scheme may help if you are having difficulties making mortgage repayments and are in danger of becoming homeless
For Citizens Advice (CAB) AdviceGuide: