25 long years to go...

mc2705

Hi all, I am not sure this will turn into a proper diary as I have a long way to go and am a bit lazy.

I completed on my flat on 31 January and made my second payment on the mortgage today. I have not got the greatest interest rate going (6.99 fixed for 5 years) but I was a first time buyer, with only a 10% deposit and most places wouldn’t touch me.

I have now set up a standing order to pay £50 extra a month. While not a huge amount, it seems to make a big difference to the mortgage term (55 months less!) and I can always increase it if and when I feel I can afford it.

A quick question for the more knowledgeable people on here. My mortgage is with Halifax and the lady I spoke to on the phone last night seemed to make it sound like I will have to call them every single month to make them take the overpayment off of the balance, rather than adjusting my payments. Is this true, as it sounds like a massive pain in the !!!!

CathT

Hi, well done on buying your flat - sorry you're not on a great interest rate tho. I am with Halifax too. I make my OP's from another provider (you can't send them from a Halifax account for some reason unless you specifically set up a fixed standing order). I just rang them up once to ask them to keep my repayment the same despite my OP's. My monthly balance keeps in line with my spreadsheet so i think that one phonecall should do it.

Good luck.

mc2705

Thanks for the reply!

I figured that just telling them once should be enough but the lady I spoke to was telling me to ring every single time. I expect I would get a different answer if I rang again (and a completely different one the time after that!).

I don’t have a Halifax account so the standing order I have set up should be fine. Hopefully I can raise the amount I overpay in a couple of years (I have a loan that should be paid off in 2 years) but just paying £50 extra makes me feel like I am doing something!