Who is overpaying on their mortgage?
Who is overpaying on their mortgage?
Author
Discussion

E65Ross

Original Poster:

36,729 posts

241 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
Just out of curiosity, those of you have have a mortgage, do you overpay? If so, how much, and with the overpayments you make how much will this reduce the term of your mortgage and how old will you be when it is finished (at your overpayment rate)?

I'm just curious to know what others do. I got my 1st house 2 years ago and in Feb this year I decided to start overpaying, only by around £55-60/month, it's a 35 year mortgage and only for £170k so my normal monthly amount is only £543 so I just make it a round £600. Even without overpayments I will still be younger than 65 by the time it is paid off.

Half of me thinks I should probably pay more and get it done even earlier, but the other half of me says live and enjoy life a little bit whilst you're still (relatively) young smile

Just wanted to know what other people are doing, and why they have chosen the amount they have.

Cheers!

sc0tt

18,289 posts

230 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
My fix term is due up for renewal in jan, i’m expecting the monthly payments to drop by a couple of hundred pounds a month. I’ll be keeping the repayments the same though.

hotchy

4,828 posts

155 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
About 75 a month, once the house is fully renovated in the next few months putting it up an extra 100 then see where we are. Could actually afford alot more but I like my holidays.

crofty1984

17,064 posts

233 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
We used to have an 800 quid mortgage and paid an extra 200 per month. When it reduced down to 600 on remortgaging we kept the payments the same.

Now we've moved but yet to sell or old house, so no overpaying right now. But when we do we'll put that money back on the mortgage. Should get a 30 year mortgage paid in about 17 years.

trickywoo

14,134 posts

259 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
Yes but I have a balance with other investments too.

With mortgage interest so low it has been quite easy get higher returns in a s&s isa than I would save by overpaying.

Yes, I know it could all change quite quickly.

Spare tyre

12,538 posts

159 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
When I was single I would transfer whatever was in my bank account at the end of the month. Made a massive difference for no real hardship

Then when married we’d keep our joint account around x, anything left over at the end over x would get transferred.

Since kids, not really thought about it!

But play with over payment calculators

Even £10 a month makes a difference in terms of term left to run

anonymous-user

83 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
We pay chunks off ours. With our business the way money comes in is usually in large amounts as and when as opposed to monthly. When we have a good month we just pay off some of it. £20k over the last 12 months. Easier said than done when trying to finish the place too.

I think we are down to the last £20k which should be cleared by next year.

We have had the house 16 months borrowed £40k Should be mortgage free by my 36th birthday.

(It helps that a 4 bedroom detached house where we live only costs £70-80k) More spare cash for holidays and cars once we have finished renovations.

Realistically I don't really count the mortgage as "debt" as we will always need somewhere to live and if we aren't paying a mortgage we will be paying rent. (Mortgage works out at £180 a month)

Glosphil

4,876 posts

263 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
When I had a sales job we could live on the basic salary (plus my wife's part time wage) so my quarterly commission/on target bonus was used to pay a lump sum off the mortgage. We knocked more than 12 years off a 30 year mortgage.

pfnsht

2,558 posts

204 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
I used to but since having kids that went out the window. Never been so poor but earn more than I ever have frown

So yes I would recommend overpaying before you have kids, if not utilise spare cash but prepare for the future. At times I've spent way more than my mortgage on childcare (mortgage = 975/mth) but now it's about 70% of my mortgage now they are both at school and that's only for 3 days a week care!






lowdrag

13,183 posts

242 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
As my business grew I kept paying chunks off when I had money and increased the monthly payments too. I paid the whole sum off in seven years.

cml24

1,581 posts

176 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
We bought our house in 2014, then moved abroad to work in 2016, with a considerable uplift in wages.

We had bought right at the lower end of our budget anyway, so managed to pay off the mortgage completely after a couple of years abroad.

We were very lucky with circumstances I think.

It made sense, as our interest rate was 5% (buy to let as a job UK resident).

red_slr

20,658 posts

218 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
I overpaid on ours for about 15 years. Its paid off now. In recent years its not been as "worthwhile" due to low interest rates but its still a good feeling to come home at night knowing it really is my house.

We had 2 houses on the go so had to mortgage our new house but then we sold the old house which because we had been overpaying on both it meant the equity from the old house was enough to pay off the mortgage on the new one.

The first few years it does not really seem to make much difference but once you get going on it after say 5-10 years it makes a massive difference.

Paying off the house was one of our 2 major goals for retiring early so we are 50% the way there.

Imasurv

541 posts

113 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
I’ve been overpaying our mortgage for a few years now, increasing the amount at the start of each year to keep the term reducing. Earlier this year I decided to split the overpayment in half and pay the other half into an s& s isa, and will now try and increase both annually again.

gangzoom

8,791 posts

244 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
Was overpaying alot enough to be on track to be pretty much mortgage free by 45 which was always an aim for me. We have been overpaying by roughly by 30-40% every month, cleared and 1/4 of the over debt within the frist 3 years of moving to the current house.

But now contemplating a house extension that will add 25% to existing mortgage, bizarrely though current addtional mortgage borrowing is actually at a crazy low 1.6% fixed for 5 years so the overpaying wasn't in vain. Will still aim to be mortgage free by 50 at the latest even with the extension built.

Personally I don't see the point of having a big cash amount in the current accounts, and ISA rates are so slow clearing the mortgage debt just makes sense. The additional borrowing at below inflation values though is crazy, its like the banks almost don't want you to clear the debt....



Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 2nd November 10:45


Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 2nd November 10:47

lowdrag

13,183 posts

242 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
gangzoom said:
Personally I don't see the point of having a big cash amount in the current accounts, and ISA rates are so slow clearing the mortgage debt just makes sense. The additional borrowing at below inflation values though is crazy, its like the banks almost don't want you to clear the debt....
Not necessarily so. A shares ISA invested in Shell for example yields 6.5%, and Shell have never reduced their dividend since the war. Perhaps something to think on.

JamesD74

244 posts

204 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
We overpay by 50% each month.

Current calculations show about 7 years remaining. So if all goes to plan our overpayments should halve our original 25 years term.

NerveAgent

3,845 posts

249 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
I used to, but my rate has been so low for the last 3 years, it’s made much more sense to stick more in my Sipp and S&S isa (probably always has actually)

mudster

792 posts

273 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
lowdrag said:
Not necessarily so. A shares ISA invested in Shell for example yields 6.5%, and Shell have never reduced their dividend since the war. Perhaps something to think on.
I wouldn't take that for granted. Invested £20k last year in a S&S ISA (various funds) and 18 months later it's worth £19.7k

Benbay001

5,888 posts

186 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
mudster said:
I wouldn't take that for granted. Invested £20k last year in a S&S ISA (various funds) and 18 months later it's worth £19.7k
What did you buy?

Leylandeye

550 posts

84 months

Saturday 2nd November 2019
quotequote all
I overpaid and finished paying off about 10 years early. No doubt there were smarter things to do with the money but it has meant that I've been able to cut back on work and enjoy life whilst I've still got health.

I was lucky though as I had the spare money to overpay with.