Longer term mortgage paid off early or shorter term paid on time?

Loui.Marshall

We're getting a new mortgage after renting abroad for the last few years and are trying to decide the best way to organise our repayments.

Would getting a 20 year mortgage paid 5 years early or a 15 year mortgage paid in 15 years, on average, work out any different?
I've seen the article that advises to balance the mortgage rate against savings to see if overpayments are worth it but we don't really have 'savings' (although we do have investments which are performing reasonably well). We are also capable or sticking to overpayments reliably - we managed to double our payments with our last mortgage by keeping the amount we paid the same once our rate started reducing when we were out of the fixed term. What I'm not sure about is whether to plan for those overpayments initially by adding extra time to the mortgage ?

There's no difference in interest payable that we can see so far based on the term, I can see that we'd save about 20k in interest getting a 15 year mortgage as opposed to 20 years, I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking it but was hoping that someone here could add their opinion as my hubby and myself are kind of number drunk right now

julicorn

The 15 years vs 20 years is just your contractual length of time, basically your commitment of 'I will pay this off over X amount of time'. Based on that, the lender sets your minimum payment for the month (which will be higher for 15 years vs 20 years). 
At the same interest rate, and if you pay the same amount of money every month, paying a 15-year mortgage off on schedule or a 20 year mortgage off 5 years early work out the same. Some people prefer the 20 year option because it gives them more flexibility, others like being forced to stick to their plan.