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Jan 12
Use a repayment mortgage calculator to work out whether you should over pay on your mortgage
By Mortgage Calculator on January 28, 2012When you have a little extra cash and are thinking of things to do with it, it seems to be the most sensible option to make an overpayment on your mortgage. Using a repayment mortgage calculator you will see exactly how much you are required to pay back each month and how this will affect the length of your loan. Making an overpayment seems to make sense as it takes off more of the money you owe on the loan, reducing your interest and making the repayment terms shorter. Looking at an offset mortgage calculator or a buy to let mortgage calculator will show you the difference in types of mortgage compared to a standard repayment plan. Offset mortagges are flexible and encourage you to make overpayments, whereas a lot of buy to let plans will charge you a fee for overpayment making the idea less attractive.
Before you decide to make an overpayment the first thing you need to check is whether your mortgage provider allows this on your current plan. If not you could end up paying penalty fees for overpayment which will make any overpayment a waste of time and money. You can also look into whether you are on a deal (or can move to a deal) where you can take back any money you overpay, just in case you think you can afford to make an overpayment but later down the line find out you need your money back. if you think this is likely you will not want to have to go through the stress of remortgaging just to get your money back.
If you overpay your lender may allow you to start taking repayment holidays when you need to up to the value of the overpayment, and in offset mortgages the money you can overpay or underpay is all yours anyway so you can add to it and take it away as often as you like – bearing in mind that it does affect the length of the mortgage repayment term and the interest on the loan.
If, using a free mortgage calculator, you decide that making an overpayment on your mortgage is not worth it, then there are other things you can do with the money that will still help you out financially. Any other debts you might have could be paid off, you could start a high return savings account and so on. These things will still help you out in the future even if you can’t repay your mortgage faster.
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