Mortgage forbearance: how it works, what it costs, and what happens when it ends.
Mortgage forbearance is a temporary arrangement in which your loan servicer agrees to pause or reduce your monthly mortgage payments for a defined period while you work through a financial hardship. It is not forgiveness. Every payment paused during forbearance is still owed — the question is how and when it gets repaid. Understanding that distinction before you enter a forbearance arrangement is essential, because the repayment obligation at the end is what surprises most borrowers.
This page covers how mortgage forbearance works, who qualifies, what the repayment options look like after forbearance ends, and how it differs from related tools like loan modification and deferral.
What mortgage forbearance is — and is not
Forbearance is a temporary pause or reduction in required monthly payments. During the forbearance period, your servicer agrees not to initiate foreclosure proceedings, and for most borrowers with government-backed loans, the account is reported as current to the credit bureaus during the agreed period — provided the forbearance was granted before you stopped making payments.
Forbearance is not a loan modification. A modification permanently changes the terms of your mortgage — the interest rate, the loan term, or both — to make the payment permanently more affordable. Forbearance is temporary by definition. After it ends, either your payments resume or you transition to another arrangement.
Forbearance is also not deferral, though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably by servicers and the distinction matters. In the mortgage context, deferral specifically refers to one of the repayment options after forbearance ends: missed payments are moved to the end of the loan term as a non-interest-bearing balance due at payoff, sale, or refinancing. Deferral is what happens to the missed payments; forbearance is the pause itself.
Interest continues to accrue on your loan balance during forbearance at the standard rate, unless your servicer has specifically agreed otherwise. A six-month forbearance on a $300,000 balance at 6.5 percent adds approximately $9,750 in accrued interest. That interest does not disappear — it becomes part of what you owe.
Who qualifies for mortgage forbearance
For federally backed mortgages — those owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, or USDA — servicers are generally required to offer forbearance options to borrowers experiencing financial hardship, though the specific terms and processes vary by program. For conventional loans not backed by these agencies, forbearance is offered at the servicer's discretion based on investor guidelines. Fannie Mae has a locator tool at https://yourhome.fanniemae.com/calculators-tools/loan-lookup and Freddie Mae as a tool at https://myhome.freddiemac.com/resources/loanlookup. While these are the two main options as noted other loans can be guaranteed too.
Qualifying hardships typically include job loss or significant income reduction, a serious medical illness or injury, disability, divorce, a natural disaster, or another significant financial disruption. Documentation requirements vary — some servicers require proof of hardship, others accept a written statement. The key is to contact your servicer before missing a payment rather than after; servicers have more flexibility and more options available for borrowers who are current or only slightly behind.
If you are not sure whether your loan is federally backed, your servicer can tell you. The type of loan significantly affects which forbearance options are available and what the repayment terms can look like afterward.
How to request forbearance from your servicer
Contact your mortgage servicer — the company you send your payment to each month — not your original lender, which may be different. The servicer's contact information is on your monthly mortgage statement.
When you call, explain your hardship clearly and ask specifically about forbearance options. Be prepared to describe what changed, when it changed, and what your current financial picture looks like. Ask the servicer directly: what are my options? What happens at the end of the forbearance period? What repayment options will be available to me? Do not agree to a forbearance arrangement without understanding the answers to those questions, because the repayment terms at the end are the most consequential part of the decision.
Do not stop making payments before a forbearance arrangement is approved and confirmed. A servicer agreement — not a verbal assurance — is what protects your credit standing during the pause. Stopping payments without a confirmed arrangement results in delinquency marks on your credit report that forbearance would have prevented.
Get the terms of any agreement in writing. The confirmation should specify the duration of the forbearance, whether interest continues to accrue, how your account will be reported to the credit bureaus, and when the servicer will contact you to discuss repayment.
If you want help navigating the conversation with your servicer or understanding your options, a HUD-approved housing counselor can review your situation at no cost and advocate on your behalf. This is genuinely useful — servicers respond differently to counselors who know the servicing guidelines than to individual borrowers calling for the first time. HUD's counselor locator is at hud.gov, or call HUD's toll-free housing counseling line at 1-800-569-4287. Read more about foreclosure counseling outcomes.
What happens when forbearance ends: your repayment options
This is the section of the forbearance conversation that gets the least attention before the fact and the most attention afterward. Servicers are required to contact you approximately 30 days before your forbearance is scheduled to end to discuss repayment. Understanding the options before that call makes the conversation more productive.
Reinstatement (lump sum). You pay all missed payments at once when the forbearance ends. This option is available but — importantly — servicers with federally backed loans cannot require it as the only option. If a servicer presents reinstatement as the only path, ask explicitly about the other options below. Most borrowers who entered forbearance due to financial hardship do not have a lump sum available, and you should not be pressured into one.
Repayment plan. Your missed payments are spread across a defined number of months, added to your regular monthly payment. For example, if you missed six payments of $1,800 and have a twelve-month repayment plan, your monthly payment increases by $900 for twelve months while you also continue paying your standard $1,800, for a total of $2,700 per month during the repayment period. This option works for borrowers whose income has recovered and who can sustain a temporarily higher payment.
Payment deferral. Missed payments are moved to the end of the loan as a non-interest-bearing balance, due when you sell the home, refinance, or pay off the mortgage. This option is available for most Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and does not increase your regular monthly payment going forward. It is the most accessible option for borrowers whose income has returned to normal but who cannot afford a higher monthly payment during a repayment period.
Loan modification. If your financial situation has changed enough that you cannot resume the original payment — even without a repayment plan added — a modification restructures the loan to create a permanently affordable payment. This may involve extending the loan term, reducing the interest rate, or rolling missed payments into the new principal balance. The FHA offers a 40-year loan modification option that can meaningfully reduce monthly payments for eligible borrowers. A modification is more involved than the other options and takes longer to process, so it is worth discussing early rather than only after other options are exhausted.
If none of these options are workable and you cannot resume payments at all, options such as a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure may be discussed with your servicer as alternatives to foreclosure. A HUD-approved housing counselor is the right resource for navigating those decisions. More on foreclosure prevention is at mortgage help programs.
How forbearance affects your credit
For borrowers with government-backed loans who enter forbearance before missing a payment, the account is typically reported as current during the forbearance period. This is a significant credit protection — the forbearance itself does not create a delinquency on your record.
For borrowers who were already delinquent when forbearance was granted, the prior delinquencies remain on the report. The forbearance stops additional delinquency marks from accruing during the period, which is still valuable.
After forbearance ends, how the account is reported depends on which repayment path is chosen. A deferral or resumption of normal payments typically results in continued current reporting. A loan modification may result in a note on the credit report, but this is generally far less damaging than a foreclosure or sustained delinquency.
Mortgage forbearance and deferment compared to credit card forbearance
The mechanics of mortgage forbearance and credit card forbearance are conceptually similar — both pause or reduce payment obligations temporarily during hardship — but the stakes and the regulatory framework are different in important ways.
Mortgage forbearance involves a secured debt on an asset the lender can foreclose on. Credit card forbearance involves unsecured debt. This means mortgage forbearance is more consequential if it goes wrong, and the repayment obligations at the end are more complex. The post-forbearance repayment options for mortgages — deferral to end of loan, modification, repayment plan — are more varied and more formally structured than credit card post-forbearance arrangements.
Federal rules for government-backed mortgages prohibit servicers from requiring lump-sum repayment at the end of forbearance and establish specific criteria for what servicers must offer. No comparable federal rule governs credit card forbearance arrangements, which are entirely at issuer discretion.
For credit card forbearance specifically, see the credit card forbearance and deferred payments page.
Conclusion
Mortgage forbearance is a legitimate and often effective tool for homeowners experiencing genuine, temporary financial hardship. The key conditions for it to work as intended: you request it before missing payments, you understand the repayment obligations before agreeing to the arrangement, and you have a realistic plan for how your situation changes before forbearance ends. A HUD-approved housing counselor can help with all three of those at no cost.
This page provides general educational information about mortgage forbearance. Program terms, eligibility, and repayment options vary by loan type and servicer and change over time. This page is not legal or financial advice. Contact your mortgage servicer and, if needed, a HUD-approved housing counselor before making decisions about forbearance.
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