Mortgage-Free Wannabe Welcome and Explanation

andysdad_2 · 16 November 2014 at 12:18PM

Seeingwhatsbest wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm a new member to the MSE site, but a regular user of its Overpayments Calculator especially.
I'm seeking any advice if I'm doing wrong with my mortgage overpayments...or reassurance if I'm doing right
Mortgage type: Repayment, standard variable rate 4.99%
Interest calculated: Annually
Since July 2011 I have been making overpayments into my mortgage account, which then was at £43,429 with exactly 15 years remaining. This has included overpayment through my direct debit, and also one-off large capital payments from time to time, which reduced the subsequent mothly payments. In April my lender informed me that the mortgage term had been reduced by 9 months.

Now the balance remaining is £28,080 and with my normal monthly overpayments of £100 currently debited from my account I will end the mortgage in February 2022.

To date I have overpaid £10,100 in total, but am thinking I may have done a mistake in not requesting to keep monthly payments the same since making the occasional large capital payments i.e. when the first letter telling me about the payment change arrived.

What do other members think? Am I going about it completely wrong, or maybe right?

Hopefully I'm making sense with the above. Thanks in advance:)

Congratulations on overpayinghttp://static.moneysavingexpert.com/images/forum_smilies/beerchug.gif
If I follow it looks like your lender is sometimes reducing the length remaining and sometime reducing the monthly payment.
If you are looking to pay off early you want them to only shorten the term. The key thing for you is to pay at least your original amount into the mortgage monthly so you could just increase your over payments in the short term whilst you give your provider the instruction to shorten the term

Seeingwhatsbest · 23 November 2014 at 8:22PM

Thanks for your reply. I have been thinking that requesting my lender to reduce the term and not the monthly payments is what I should really be doing. Hopefully in the new year I'll be able to increase my overpayments further to speed up my mortgage-free mission...

Princess8783 · 3 February 2015 at 1:40AM

First post!!

So I'm obsessed with overpaying my mortgage.
I look at the accounts every day.
We bought our first house in 2007 - mortgage borrow £99450.
We overpaid massively and got it down to about £50000 in 6 years.
Before we decided we should move.
We borrowed our over-payments back and used them as the deposit for out new house, ported the existing (great deal!!) mortgage product across, and took a second mortgage deal.

Total owed as of August 2013 - £129138

Total still owing as at Feb 2015 - £114489.56
Total over-payments made since moving to new house 11338.78

We like our social life & holidays, but are currently trying to destroy the mortgage - I have a 5 year plan.

The 'big' original mortgage - I aim to clear by 2018 and then we can focus our attention on the smaller second mortgage and have it cleared in 2020.

We're doing a series of things to overpay, this includes a 'sweep' of what's left in our joint account at the end of a month, lump sums from bonuses at work, using the topcashback website for all online purchases and putting any rewards straight back into the mortgage, we car-share once a week and put the value we save on petrol into the mortgage pot, anything we win on football coupons or scratchcards goes straight into the pot, as does the money for anything we sell on Ebay. We also have 2 cashback credit cards, Santander 123 which we use in petrol stations and supermarkets to get the maximum cashback values, and another card that gives 0.5% on all purchases for absolutely all other spending. Anything we put on the cards, we 'ping' into a little esaver account until the credit card bill is due to be paid - we don't use debit cards or cash at all now to maximise cashback rewards which go into mortgage pot also. We're also trying to do regular exercises on reducing energy tariffs, car insurance renewals, sky package etc to make sure we're getting the best deals available... The more we save, the more there is to sweep at the end of the month...

Also, we never go anywhere without a deal or a voucher. Always make sure I get a groupon for dinner, or a discount code :j

I'm pretty obsessed and would be totally made up if we can be sitting mortgage free in 5 years time. Its so nice to find a forum full of like-minded people, most people I know think we're crazy!!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

seven-day-weekend · 25 March 2015 at 5:45PM

Hi there!

After years of being mortgage-free, we now have a mortgage again. We took this out on a bungalow we wish to move into which needs work doing, but did not want to live in it whist the work was being done.

It is an interest-only mortgage for £100k. I am expecting a sizeable inheritance in the near future and this plus savings should pay it off. When the work is finished we will put our mortgage-free house on the market.

We will pay the mortgage off with either the inheritance or the proceeds of the house sale, whichever happens first.

If I have put this on the wrong board, please feel free to move it

barbedhook · 2 May 2015 at 9:27PM

Stop buying scratch cards and gambling and put money into your repayment pot

Jeannette_Johnson · 16 July 2015 at 8:48AM

I have a morgage left of 60k. I pay 600pm. Can I do this quicker or cheaper? I am paying mortgage only so that it is paid by the time I retire. Would it be better to stay with the Halifax or move and would this even be possible. Always scared of losing my job therefore my home.

gingeralan · 25 June 2016 at 10:50PM

Very pleased at the moment, well on target to clear my mortgage within the next 8 years. Just dropped below the £60k outstanding :-)

Adamjeffs · 22 October 2016 at 8:18AM

Hi so I wanted to ask general advice

I got divorced two years ago but was fortunate enough to keep the house . I was left with a large mortgage of 325000 which I've managed to pay down to about 300k now . Keen to pay it off as early as possible but with new mortgage rates I'm thinking its better to remortgage to a level I'm comfortable I can afford and then invest the extra money to pay off later. For info I can expect to get a rate of 1.39% fixed for two years

I also pay a lot into a pension (I'm 35 and have about 100k already). I save about 18% (inc employers contribution) of my salary in it. Again what's people opinions should I reduce this and pay a bit. Ore into is as or off the mortgage I'm a bit concerned that by the time I retire in 30 odd years compound interest alone may take me over the allowance

tootallulah · 22 October 2016 at 8:38AM

Hi, if you start a thread asking for advice you will get more responses. Good luck.

Fatbritabroad · 22 October 2016 at 8:46AM

Mthanks sorry numpty posted in the wrong bit I have redone

Mortgage-Free Wannabe Welcome and Explanation

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