Are you having trouble making your mortgage payment?  Pick up the phone and call your lender.  You are not alone and many people are in your same situation.

Because so many people in today's world are having trouble making their mortgage payments on time, lenders are hiring people in their "loss mitigation" departments so there is a better chance than ever before that you can actually talk with someone.

When talking to your lender, here are a few of the ways that they could possibly help you if you are having trouble making your mortgage payments:

1. They could be willing to accept a partial monthly payment for a period of time and put the rest of the payment that you can't afford to pay into the principal balance of the loan. Effectively, they will allow you to "tack on" money that you owe to the back of the loan. This might be a good solution if you are experiencing a temporary situation such as job loss or a short-term illness or family situation.

2. They could allow you to "skip" a payment (or two?) and have the missed payment added into the total loan amount. Again, this may be a solution if the financial problems that you are experiencing are temporary.

3. They could waive late payment fees that may have accumulated. This may be a solution if you have several late payments already and are just trying to get caught up. This is probably the simplest option of all of these listed.

4. They could set up a payment plan with you for an extended period of time (think 12-36 months) where they will add a fraction of your outstanding loan payments to your payment each month until you are caught up. For example, if you are currently $2,400 behind, you might be able to set up a payment plan where you pay $100 extra each month for 24 months.

5. They could offer you a completely new loan with a new amortization schedule. I see this happen the most when people use a loan modification company to help them negotiate with the lender. Usually, the loan modification company is getting people a 5.X% 30 year fixed rate (better than you could get refinancing in today's market). The reason that the loan modification company is usually able to do better than just the consumer in negotiating this is because there are truth-in-lending (or similar) violations in the original loan and they use that to your advantage to pressure the loan servicing company into giving you a competitive fixed rate.

6. They could simply do a "principal reduction". I see this happen most often in some combination with #5 and when done by a loan modification. Most of the time, it seems that consumers are just not aware or savvy enough (who would be?) to know all of the options that are available to them but a principal reduction is more common than you may think in today's world.

These are only some of the things that are possible when working with your current lender if you are having problems making your payment.

The most important thing you could do?

Start the conversation with your lender as soon as you are having trouble making your payments.