Paying off mortgage question 23 February 2014 at 7:42PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 1 reply 633 views

LittleMissGiggles123

Hi all

My husband & I are trying to get enough savings together to pay off our mortgage (a HUGE £179k).

However, I have often read on here that it's advisable to leave a small balance owing on the mortgage to make it easier to release equity if it became necessary in the future.

Is this the best course of action & if it is, how does it work?

At the moment we pay £912.30 per month. Obviously if we left a balance of say £10k on the mortgage, it wouldn't be there for long if we were paying the same monthly payment. So would we need to reduce the monthly payment then to a nominal figure to keep the mortgage running?

Sorry if this is a silly question but I don't know what would be best to do. I think for all the hassle I might prefer to just pay the whole thing.

Thanks

LydiaJ

I don't think it's necessary any more. In the old days, getting a mortgage was all about having a relationship with a bank, so having an existing mortgage that you could increase was a good way to make things easier. Now, though, people move mortgage providers all the time, and qualifying is about LTV and proof of income and such, so you don't need that toe in the door any more.

Of course, if you think that getting a lot of the equity back is significantly likely, rather than just a remote possibility that it would be good to have, then your best bet would be an offset mortgage, I would imagine.