I can't believe it!!!!

CathT

Kei well done on having your lightbulb moment and starting to overpay your mortgage. We all get here in different ways. for example, as a student I wanted my mortgage as low as possible, was on interest only and we saved the repayment difference amount in an ISA in case we couldn't afford the whole amount (which it turned out we could) We used savings of £6000 cash for a garage conversion and made a £3000 OP but I was pleased to see this reduced my mortgage at the time. Of course now my repayment amount stays the same so my regular OP's have more impact.

I think i've waffled but wanted to say it isn't obvious to it all that we should overpay as much as we can from the outset.

debtdesperado

That was exactly how I felt Kei when I found out about overpaying!!

... obv, as dear Brain points out, you know you'll pay less interest, but I just accepted as received wisdom when I heard someone say 'not worth paying your mortgage off', 'once you've paid it you can't get it back', 'cheapest debt you'll ever have', and never looked at an overpayment calculator to see whether it was worth paying back...

I read a dave ramsey book where he spends a chapter explaining why it's better to get rid of your mortgage asap (basically, it comes down to financial security), and that made me curious...and once I saw the effect on an overpayment calculator, I was staggered. I still had to pay a load of debt off, but once that was done, I went straight into paying the same off my mortgage so I couldn't get used to the extra money.

My mortgage is a big one, but I remember feeling the same way about my debt which seemed huge, but in the end, chipping away at it, it was gone, so I'm taking the same view with the mortgage...don't look up at the mountain, just start climbing! BTW, it gets addictive... have a chart where I colour in each brick worth £1000 when I pay it off (ie normal repayment amount, plus overpayment...am itching to get to the point of chopping it down by a brick a month...but slowly, slowly!

Best of luck!

qwerty001

Kei wrote: »

........I think that if it was not for this site a lot of people would not be so well informed? If we all knew this stuff then perhaps there would not be a need for this site and hence this forum???

Me too....

It was only from this site that I heard about the ability to make overpayments on mortgages

I had previously heard of paying off mortgages but that usually required a lottery win or redundancy money or knowing someone with a large will.

This site having been mentioned to me by a friend for the money saving emails.

I just can't believe how much money you can save by overpaying, in the course of the few months that I have had my mortgage I have reduced my monthly mortgage by over £40 (reducing payments rather than term)

Jonbvn

ViolaLass wrote: »

OP, please note that it is likely that you are paying a higher rate of interest on your credit card and other loans than on your mortgage so it would be better (financially speaking) to overpay on those first.

Was going to post the same thing!

OP, always overpay your highest interest rate debts first. They will usually be on credit cards.

Kei

ViolaLass wrote: »

OP, please note that it is likely that you are paying a higher rate of interest on your credit card and other loans than on your mortgage so it would be better (financially speaking) to overpay on those first.

Hiya, it's ok everything is interest free and I plan on paying it all back before the rate ends! I wasn't even going to think about the mortgage before paying back the cards, however when I used the mortgage calculator just out of curiosity, I just had to start OPing straight away, even if at the moment it's just £200!

I appreciate the advice though

Kei

qwerty001 wrote: »

Me too....

It was only from this site that I heard about the ability to make overpayments on mortgages

I had previously heard of paying off mortgages but that usually required a lottery win or redundancy money or knowing someone with a large will.

This site having been mentioned to me by a friend for the money saving emails.

I just can't believe how much money you can save by overpaying, in the course of the few months that I have had my mortgage I have reduced my monthly mortgage by over £40 (reducing payments rather than term)

Thats what I thought, that I was stuck with it for 30yrs and there was no other way out - turns out there is! No lottery win involved!:cool:

Kei

debtdesperado wrote: »

My mortgage is a big one, but I remember feeling the same way about my debt which seemed huge, but in the end, chipping away at it, it was gone, so I'm taking the same view with the mortgage...don't look up at the mountain, just start climbing! BTW, it gets addictive... have a chart where I colour in each brick worth £1000 when I pay it off (ie normal repayment amount, plus overpayment...am itching to get to the point of chopping it down by a brick a month...but slowly, slowly!

Best of luck!

I really like your colour chart idea, great way to display it and keep yourself inspired, may have to make one myself!

Sepa74

Hi Kia, I like your avatar... are all the shopping bags from a charity shop?!!

Good luck with your MF journey.

Kei

Hi Sepa, haha yes charity shop buys are in and high street shopping is out!

I think that pic is more of the 'old' me, now shopping is a luxury instead of a regular hobby!

Kei

Just a quick update............

Credit card has been paid off!!! :j:j:j:j:j

OD will be paid off on the 26th Aug :j:j:j:j

Only owe the OH money which will be paid off soon!

Have been making monthy overpayments of £200 since starting this thread, (think that is 3 months now?) and its like I haven't even noticed not having this in my account, which is great!