Could I pay off my mortgage on a Credit Card?

LeCoop

I have reached a point where I can pay off my mortgage (c.£14k).

Before I raid my savings account to do so, does anyone know if it is possible to take out one or more 0% credit cards to pay it off, to leave the bulk of my savings intact & earning interest?

And does anyone know if the Halifax would take a credit card payment as settlement?

dougk_2

If you take out a card that allows a SBT - i.e. a payment to a bank account you can pay yourself then settle the account with your mortgage lender with that money.

I'm not sure the lender would accept a credit card payment, I would be interested to know that too!

Martinslovechild

LeCoop,

I somehow don't think that they'll accept a credit card payment as they would have to pay about 2.5% to the card company for the transaction.

However - no harm in asking.

If (or when) they say 'no', if you've got yourself an Egg Card, then you could balance transfer the full credit limit into your current account (by selecting the Balance Transfer - Overdraft option from the Egg website once you've logged in), and then either make a Switch/Delta payment or write them a cheque.

Egg's maximum credit limit is £15,000. Some people who initially received a lower limit have reportedly increased this in £2K blocks every few days to get up to the full £15K. There's more info elsewhere on this.

Once you've done the SBT into your current account and you've got £14K debt on your Egg Card, you then need to simply keep up the minimum repayments and apply for new 0% cards every 6-9 months to rotate the debt. Ensure that you apply for each new card approx 5 weeks before the expiry of each 0% deal - some cards take longer than others to arrive.

nh

You lucky lucky thing!

LeCoop

Martins Love Child: Good advice... much appreciated

LeCoop

To NH;
When you get married, STAY married & work hard and after 26yrs you'll be as lucky as me... best wishes.

nh

Thanks Lecoop  ;D

We've only got 22 and a half years left on our mortgage  ;). But we're hoping after the wedding to overpay each month and pay it off sooner.

But you made me think that, if these 0% deals last for the next 20 years (who knows) we would be able to pay the last £10k or so off on a 0% deal so pay no interest in the last year!

smartsaver

To NH;
When you get married, STAY married & work hard and after 26yrs you'll be as lucky as me... best wishes.

Provided along the way you wern't persuaded to out a dodgy endowment policy to give you more savings in retirement  :-/  

nh

Thankfully, it is just a repayment mortgage, though I did take out an endowment on my first property (a £21,500 flat!) which I am still paying into (£35 a month). I figure even if it doesn't pay out the £18,500 it is supposed to, it will pay out something decent (which of course we won't need to pay off the mortgage) in 2019. Just about the time we'll be sending our first child off to university (hopefully - we haven't actually had any kids yet!).

My mum and dad have an endowment, though, which will have a £6,000 shortfall, but they reckon they have saved much more than that in the past few years thanks to low interest rates (their repayments have come down loads from what they were in the early 90s). They are not really bothered about the shortfall, especially since their house is now worth £200k and they bought it for £38,500 in 1989.