2020 Mortgage-Free Wannabes

becky170

Hi, no.7 for here i've managed to make the following overpayments:
September £232
October £230
That means I've managed to make my target of £3000 in overpayments this year which I'm chuffed about. I'm at £3091 so far so now aiming for £3500! Thanks

weenemo

Hello all. 
So, as per my last post, we did decide to put more in to bring the monthly minimum fee down again, aiming for under £5 to essentially write it off as an expense. If it was so small I didn't mind it ticking away for the next 6 years without having to think about it.  
We put in £600 for October. 

Twodays later, our provider called us.  They could see we had only a few hundred left to pay for the remaining 6 years and offered us to redeem the mortgage.  Without penalty. Despite being on a ten year fixed.  
@Suffolk_lass I can't believe that they contacted us rather than us having to ask, and it's all happened so quickly.  Apparently, "it's not usually what they do". So, we've had the notification, officially redeemed.  Deeds with our names and no bank named on them on their way to us shortly. House is fully ours. 

Just a little under 4 years after taking the mortgage out, we've paid it all off.  And I'm still only 34. 
Even if you cannot pay it off that quickly, the smallest amount from as early as you can makes the biggest difference.  It feels so good to not pay more interest to the bank than we needed to. 
Being here has been really motivating. And thank you @julicorn

Hettyhound

Morning, number 90 with an October payment of £500.  I’m on a mission, I took the 500 from savings (to be replaced over the next two months) as I remortgage on 1st November.  It was always my challenge to get down to £49,950 by that date (£30 k off the original mortgage in 5 years) but didn’t look feasible: enter Covid.  Working from home means my expenses have been reduced so I’ve made the most of it.  I’ve got £430 ish left to pay by the end of the month to achieve this and there’s some left in my current account and I get paid on the 30th so can top it up from there.  I’ll be going onto a 2 year deal at 1.64% which will save me about £100 a month.  I will be on a 10% overpayment limit which I should manage to reach for the first time ever so any excess will go into savings to overpay when my new limit is set/deal ends.  Plan then is to go onto standard rate and chuck it all at it and clear by my target of Easter 2025.  I’m so proud I’ve managed to do this much on my own and thanks to everyone on these sites for they support and of course Julicorn for the updating.  I’ll be back next week to report (hopefully!) I’ve reached my remortgage target 🥳

miss_undastood

#56 £910.89 op for October. Think I have met my annual target early again!
We have just remortgaged so as of Nov we will be focusing on clearing our rate of 1.99% as owing over £300k scares me.

I spoke to Barclays this week. Apparently I can make a lump sum overpayment of 10% without penalty per year AND set my DD to up to 3x over my normal payment (so if it is £300 (I wish) I can pay up to £1200!) So obviously I have upped my DD by around £750 a month  - and should knock 20 YEARS off of one part of my mortgage. Happy days!!

I didn’t believe it either but both a Barclays branch mortgage advisor, the call centre person and the person who adjusted my DD all confirmed this to be true. 

With savings rates so poor, my exposure high it makes sense to throw most of what we have to protect ourselves for the future. 

My current blended interest rate is 1.53% - but on over 300 it’s still over £12 of interest a day

julicorn

weenemo said:

Hello all. 
So, as per my last post, we did decide to put more in to bring the monthly minimum fee down again, aiming for under £5 to essentially write it off as an expense. If it was so small I didn't mind it ticking away for the next 6 years without having to think about it.  
We put in £600 for October. 

Twodays later, our provider called us.  They could see we had only a few hundred left to pay for the remaining 6 years and offered us to redeem the mortgage.  Without penalty. Despite being on a ten year fixed.  
@Suffolk_lass I can't believe that they contacted us rather than us having to ask, and it's all happened so quickly.  Apparently, "it's not usually what they do". So, we've had the notification, officially redeemed.  Deeds with our names and no bank named on them on their way to us shortly. House is fully ours. 

Just a little under 4 years after taking the mortgage out, we've paid it all off.  And I'm still only 34. 
Even if you cannot pay it off that quickly, the smallest amount from as early as you can makes the biggest difference.  It feels so good to not pay more interest to the bank than we needed to. 
Being here has been really motivating. And thank you @julicorn

That's fantastic news, congratulations!

glass_half_full

#55 please can I record an additional £300 for October taking me to £600 for October. Thanks!

SandyShores

No. 150 here, £10 overpayment.

So we bought the house at the end of June and I was planning to overpay £300 a month.  Of course all the extra expenses with moving and then we decided to have the garden done which wiped us out completely.  Am just paying that off and starting to build up the emergency funds again.  I wasn't planning to make any overpayments this year, but just looking through the threads and people seem to be making really small payments - are people really making even just £1 payments? (or are you saving it up to pay off a larger amount).

Anyhow, you've spurred me on and I've made my very first overpayment of £10.  It feels really good.  I need to sort out online access to see the amount owing.

Our mortgage is around £240k and we also have a HTB equity loan to pay off in five years time.  We're both in our 50's and have set the mortgage for 19 years, but I'm hoping to have it paid off in a minimum of 12 years in time for retirement.  It feels like a huge debt to take on at this time of life but its better than the alternative of keeping on renting.  We are also getting to live in a lovely new house and it certainly opens up options.

Julicorn, I'm not going to make my £1500 target, it will be more like £50 hopefully.

ps, thanks Julicorn for updating the spreadsheet.  I feel like I'm off the starting blocks.  A long way from mortgage free, but I will get there

Moneyminded

Hi, 
Number 110 checking in with an OP for October of £779.78
Thanks Julicorn 

Suffolk_lass

@weenemo that is just fantastic. Well done and congratulations. 🎉🎉🎉🎉

We transferred the money on 14th October to pay ours off but so far we have had a letter (dated 14th but not received until 21st) telling us the redemption amount that only held good until a week before we received it - but as they transferred it from a matured bond it should have happened in time. Yesterday's letter says we have requested a transfer.

Still no written confirmation from them that it has gone - but - the online account says we don't have a mortgage with them, - and - they have agreed to look for the paper deeds in their vault to return these to us because we live in a very old house of potential historical interest. I would just really like it finalised. I have cancelled the direct debit.

danby22

Update from #117: Managed to add another £750 for October.  Hoping to get closer to the target for the year but could be a long shot now.