Yet this understates the long-term and growing seriousness of the situation: in many countries, the stock of debt has been rising because actual repayments have been lower than scheduled repayments; and arrears have doubled since 1991 and now total three-quarters of annual export earnings.
Any lender will expect you to tell them why you have missed payments and to arrange repayment of the arrears.
"The Smith Lawson collection process has been used since 2005 to support collection activities and was mainly used after the initial in-house collections process had been exhausted for customers who had persistently defaulted on their loan repayments and were in arrears for a minimum of three months," it said.
Low mortgage rates have also helped keep thousands of people in their homes when they might otherwise have had their properties repossessed for falling into arrears on their repayments.
Methodically she laid out the rent arrears, the rate of repayment.
An early repayment charge on mortgage balances which included arrears fees and charges within that balance.
Nonperforming loans are defined as those on which repayments are more than three months in arrears.
Santander said that properties where mortgage repayments were three months or more in arrears represented 1.41% of its overall portfolio, compared with an industry average of 2.38%.
But a significant number of those who have already negotiated softer repayment terms with their banks remain in mortgage arrears, according to the central bank's figures.
The most common causes of destitution were unsustainable debt repayments to public authorities such as council tax arrears, together with high rents and benefit delays and sanctions.
To make it clear to lenders they must not include arrears charges when calculating a borrower's early repayment charge.
