Best Way to Pay? 31 October 2007 at 10:56PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 1 reply 666 views

volpeazzurro

In about a months time I shall be in the very fortunate position of being able to pay off my interest only mortgage which happens to be with the Halifax due to a pension lump sum. My questions are, if anyone can advise me:

1. Is there a best time to pay a mortgage off i.e. time of the year or even time of the month?

2. Is it best just to walk in to the nearest local branch of the Halifax to get a settlement figure or do you have to contact their head office.

3. Is it best to pay by cheque, bankers draft or is it possible to pay by debit card?

and lastly-

4. No doubt there will be some hefty redemption charges, there's always a charge for something or other! so is there a way to keep these to a minimum? (I'm not on a fixed rate for a set period as it reverted back to a variable rate some months ago).

Thanks very much for any advice anyone can give in helping me to avoid any pitfalls!

angelavdavis

Lucky you - well done!!!

I suggest you contact your lender with regard to settling your mortgage. In particular any redemption fees that might apply (although it sounds like you have avoided these - there might be something else).

You should also see if they are likely to try to charge you for keeping your deeds safe, alternatively, some posters on here have asked their solicitors who have kept them free of charge, other lenders don't charge. More and more, these are stored electronically anyway, so there are no physical papers to store.

Someone else on here posted that they were charged interest when they paid by cheque, so I would either factor in the clearance time for the cheque, or use some other method such as transfer, but clearance time will no doubt be necessary.

Oh, and don't forget to add yourself on the mortgage free roll of honour!!!