first op! 27 July 2012 at 2:42PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 8 replies 1.1K views

ifihadalittlemoney

Hello all,

This is my first post, inspired by all on here to be mortgage free!

I am with Halifax for my mortgage and I made my first £300 op at the beginning of the month :eek: . I called to check it had gone through ok. It had and they asked if I wanted to reduce the term (its shortened by 2 months), which I said yes to, rather than reducing the monthly payments, as I want my monthly payment to stay the same. Was this the right decision? Sorry, I'm totally new to this MFW! Can anyone tell me does this incur a charge, they didn't mention it, but I have been reading some lenders can impose a charge for reducing the term?

Thank you, all and keep up the good work! x

CathT

Hi, I was with the Halifax until recently and did the same thing you just have. I chose to keep my monthly payments the same which reduced the term. There were no charges for this. It would be worth checking your mortgage paperwork though to check if you have any overpayment limits.

FWIW I don't think you're 'officially' reducing the term by making OP's, it's got to reduce as you're keeping your repayments the same.

Annieddiva

hi - I'm with the Halifax too and I've reduced the term to keep the payments the same, on my paperwork they allow 10% of your annual balance in overpayments per annum before they start charging..so yes I'd definitely check out your paperwork...
well done on your first overpayment - this site gets very addictive!!!

ifihadalittlemoney

Thanks for your replies CathT and Annieddiva. I am on the SVR and at the branch they said there was no maximum op's per month and I could make as many as I liked. Yes it is very addictive, so much so I find I am counting down until the next payday so I can make another op! That isn't quite so good counting my life away when I am only in my twenties!

pawlala

ifihadalittlemoney wrote: »

That isn't quite so good counting my life away when I am only in my twenties!

you may prefer to call it counting up to the day you can retire early!

ifihadalittlemoney

Ha! I know what you mean but that is so far away!

QB_Wolf

ifihadalittlemoney wrote: »

Thanks for your replies CathT and Annieddiva. I am on the SVR and at the branch they said there was no maximum op's per month and I could make as many as I liked. Yes it is very addictive, so much so I find I am counting down until the next payday so I can make another op! That isn't quite so good counting my life away when I am only in my twenties!

This is worrying me a little, I need to stop focussing so much on pay day and enjoy the time in between.

ifihadalittlemoney

Yes try to do things to keep your mind of payday!

ifihadalittlemoney

Ok, so I received a letter in the post: "We have attempted to update the mortgage term, however as the difference is within £2, your monthly payment will not be amended and your DD will stay the same". Does this mean that they attempted to change my monthly payment when I said I'd like to keep my payments the same? Or does it mean I have reduced the total owed by £2?? Confused....!