Z's MFW journey

Zerforax

Payment made to the solicitors for the re-mortgage. The savings bank balance looked much better when we kept the cash! The plan had always been to reduce the mortgage though but before the savings rates outstripped the mortgage rate whereas now we're moving onto a 4.65% 2 year fixed and saving rates have started coming down. Remortgage should occur on 1st October as solicitors have confirmed they have everything.

That will mean our mortgage is down to £80k so we're pleased we're below the 100k mark!

Work has still been super busy but at least they have recognised it. I've been given a small promotion and a 17% salary increase. Which I should hopefully receive from next month. I do miss my working part-time days but in the last 12-15 months, I will have almost doubled my salary.

Zerforax

Re-mortgage from Halifax to NatWest went through at the start of October. We paid the exact amount that the solicitors said to but for whatever reason, Halifax have sent me £866.14 (apparently this was more than needed repay the mortgage). No idea how they work out these numbers but slightly annoying since it would've been better if they had used those funds to pay down the mortgage more!

We will be capped to £16,000 overpayments for the next year, which is the new goal. I'll need to speak to NatWest to fully understand what period the overpayment applies to (is it 12 months from start of mortgage or the calendar year) since the new mortgage runs from 2 October 2024 to 31 December 2026.

Jessy103

Hi zerforax, I'm with Natwest and mine runs from when I took out the mortgage 🙂

Zerforax

Jessy103 said:

Hi zerforax, I'm with Natwest and mine runs from when I took out the mortgage 🙂

Thank you! Helpful to know.

For the last 18-24 months, we had just been putting money into the savings account (as savings interest rate was higher than mortgage rate) so now I need to get back to being organised and making monthly overpayments. At least it will be more fun seeing the mortgage balance come down more quickly! I always reduce the monthly payment amount rather than the term but seems a lot on the forum try and reduce the term instead.

Sarahwithlove

I'd definitely reduce the term as then it gives you a chance to maximise the payments you can make each year within your allowance. 

Mortgage_Minimiser

Hi,

Look at the terms of your mortgage. I reduce the monthly payments but that's because:

1. my monthly payment is huge (£1600)  and i want to reduce it to minimise outgoings (I have a figure i want to get it to and then will re-evaluate) and
2. more importantly my OP limit remains at 10% of the original loan (which i took out in 2015 and have stayed with same lender) so there is no impact for me. 

Worth reviewing , and good luck

MM
X

South_coast

My mortgage was with NatWest, and as long as I kept any overpayments below £1000 everything stayed the same. Then, when you got to the end of the fixed period, they recalculated the monthly payments so that the loan would be repaid over the original term. If I overpaid £1000 or more in one go, then they would recalculate the payments straight away (again, to run to the original term). It didn't really matter to me either way, as when I ran out of money owing to them, the term was over, regardless of the fact that it should have had another 20 years to run. It did get quite comical towards the end though, when my payments ended up going down to £12.99/month 😀

Zerforax

Sarahwithlove said:

I'd definitely reduce the term as then it gives you a chance to maximise the payments you can make each year within your allowance. 

We have 28 years left on the mortgage term but my plan is to pay it off over the next 4 years. Since NatWest is set to automatically reduce the monthly payment amount, I'll leave it like that.

Mortgage_Minimiser said:

Hi,

Look at the terms of your mortgage. I reduce the monthly payments but that's because:

1. my monthly payment is huge (£1600)  and i want to reduce it to minimise outgoings (I have a figure i want to get it to and then will re-evaluate) and
2. more importantly my OP limit remains at 10% of the original loan (which i took out in 2015 and have stayed with same lender) so there is no impact for me. 

Worth reviewing , and good luck

MM
X

The NatWest app seems pretty good (first time I've used it for mortgage) so it has all the information amount monthly payments, total overpayment allowance and tracks it and calculates your new monthly payment too. I have a 20% overpayment limit each year.

My monthly repayments have reduced from £426 down to £412 after my overpayment today

South_coast said:

My mortgage was with NatWest, and as long as I kept any overpayments below £1000 everything stayed the same. Then, when you got to the end of the fixed period, they recalculated the monthly payments so that the loan would be repaid over the original term. If I overpaid £1000 or more in one go, then they would recalculate the payments straight away (again, to run to the original term). It didn't really matter to me either way, as when I ran out of money owing to them, the term was over, regardless of the fact that it should have had another 20 years to run. It did get quite comical towards the end though, when my payments ended up going down to £12.99/month 😀

I'm not playing to set up as regular overpayments so I'll keep in mind the £1,000 threshold to make sure a new figure is calculated! Thank you. 

Haha that must have been super satisifying!

Zerforax

I just made a £3,000 overpayment. Seems a bit mad when the re-mortgage just started this month but I had picked the total amount of the remortgage about 6 months ago and didn't change in the end. Mortgage is now down to £77,000. I've used up £3,000 of the total £16,000 allowance until end of Sept 2025 but I'd rather use up the allowance sooner and then save the rest rather than the other way around. 

We have a sizeable emergency fund (about 7 months of expenses based on current lifestyle) as my partner is always super worried about money.

My pension contribution has been significantly increased this month too, with the salary increase. The contribution is now about £3,850 a month.

Zerforax

A bit of work drama going on so going to pause on the mortgage overpayments for a couple of months to see how everything plays out.. maybe I'll make the next overpayment at the end of January or so. Should be fine since made a decent overpayment last month so I'm still ahead of expectation.

When my pension contribution goes through for this month, I'll have added £20k in the last 8 months. I think my pension pot is decent for my age but I guess it can't hurt to increase at a faster pace.

Currently deciding if I should buy a new phone with the Black Friday sales but it just feels crazy how expensive phones are now. My current one I bought back in Dec 2019 so it's been like 5 years so I'm due an upgrade.