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How-to Guides » OLD GUIDE Cut your mortgage costs

Find out how to cut the cost of your mortgage by hundreds of pounds a month and become mortgage-free years earlier.

Cut the cost of your mortgage in the long-term

How-to Guide Tips 9 tips on this task  | 

1) Make overpayments
Overpaying will significantly reduce the amount of interest you have to pay throughout your mortgage term, saving you thousands over the long term. Contact your lender to alter your repayments. Most lenders allow you to overpay by 10% a year without penalty. This also helps you build up your equity to protect you from negative equity.

2) Pay your fees upfront
If you add your fees to your mortgage, you’ll pay interest on them for the rest of your mortgage term – which will cost you more overall. When you take out a new mortgage, pay the fees upfront and eliminate this cost.


3) Remortgage when your deal comes to an end
When the initial period of your mortgage finishes, don’t just sit on the Standard Variable Rate – shop around for a new, cheaper deal. However, don’t remortgage too early as you will be hit with early repayment charges which could total many thousands of pounds.


4) Go for a long-term deal
If you go for the stability of a longer-term mortgage, say for five years, then you will not only save the hassle of shopping around for a new deal every couple of years, but you will also avoid the arrangement fees you would have to fork out for the new mortgage.

Compare mortgages at lovemoney.com

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Tips on this task (9)

  • Arthurian
    Love rating 5
    Arthurian said

    Try to 'Reduce' the Time period of your mortgage if you can, Especially while Interest rates are low.

    This can mean you save ENORMOUS amounts in interest charges, [Much better to repay 'Capital',] However watch for any 'Penalties' [Sometimes surrounding 'Minimum amounts that can be repaid without penalty. [usually about £500-00]

    Also those on 'Direct Debits' as a means of repayment will often find this reduces but the 'Repayment term' remains unchanged.

    In such cases repay via 'Standing Order' which ENSURES repayment Term [In Years] falls. NOT monthly Amount.

    Report on 09 October 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • sergiothomas
    Love rating 0
    sergiothomas said

    Can I ask why exactly it is better to reduced the time period of the mortgage over reducing the repayments?

    Thanks very much

    Report on 08 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • HP23
    Love rating 0
    HP23 said

    SergioThomas.

    If you shorten the length of your term (eg paying off in 20 years rather than 25 years) then you pay interest for only 20 years and not 25 years. Saving you 5 years' interest payments.

    You'd need to increase the monthly repayments to do this but this extra money you're paying in is against the capital you owe and not interest.

    The question you have to ask is - in the short term can I afford the higher repayments I need to make ? Even if you can you can also question what this extra money could be used for INSTEAD of paying off your mortgage earlier - other investments (shares etc), saving for an emergency/rainy day etc.

    Also as your mortgage term progresses the value of money actually falls due to inflation. Imagine you knew interest rates would stay the same every year for 25 years and, of course, assuming you have a repayment mortgage not an endowment. Your repayments, due to the fact that you're reducing the capital you owe month by month, would gradually fall (as the interest on the reducing capital is reducing) but you would expect in 10, 15, 20 years' time that your salary/wages will continue to rise. As you can see if you stay in the same home and everything remains constant your mortgage by the end will seem a lot smaller in 20 years anyway.

    Personally I have tried to get the best deal in terms of short-term fixed rates (so far all have been 2 year) , although I appreciate the comments recently on the cost of the additional "arrangement" fees. However, every time I do so I also reduce the length of the mortgage term by 1 year. The effect of this is that the monthly repayment is slightly higher than keeping the mortgage at the original term but over the years I'll reduce the length I'm repaying by a third !!! (Although it's only a third if I always arrange a 2 year fixed length).

    Report on 15 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • juliax
    Love rating 0
    juliax said

    what if you are interest only?

    Report on 30 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • johncolescarr
    Love rating 6
    johncolescarr said

    By not remortgaging for better deals you are potentially doing yourself out of £1000s. It really is worth the effort if you have stiill got a fair portion of your mortgage to pay off. Always factor in costs to find the best overall deal for you. 

    Report on 16 March 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • slinky262
    Love rating 0
    slinky262 said

    Always try to get a straight forward repayment mortgage only. Try to make overpayments - 20 quid a month may not sound much but it will make a differance and how far does £20 go these days anyhow? And if you do this year on year with your hopeful annual payrise, over time its not just £20 anymore. Also if your circumstances change, you can just stop this with a phone call, rather then commiting yourself to any other kind of plan (shorter term etc) which gives you more flexability, which is always good, right?

    Report on 18 March 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • waz007
    Love rating 0
    waz007 said

    A good tip is to take it out a long term repayment fixed rate mortgage and then after the first payment reduce the term. I took out my 2nd mortgage in august 2009, a 10 year fixed rate at 4.99, only 0.10% more expensive than my first mortgage so I know I could afford it etc. My first one was over 25 years and was for a 3 year fixed term. My new mortgage is over 20 years a reduction of 2 years on my original total, However with my overpayment the mortgage currently stands at 11 years term, but if my circumstances change and I can’t afford the extra payments then I can always push the term out, up to 8 years more, and with the extra capital I’ve already paid the payments would be roughly £180 a month less than when I started the mortgage.

    Report on 11 July 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • andymstar
    Love rating 0
    andymstar said

    What about an interest-only for a max term ie : 25 yrs , and then you still owe the amount , but of course with inflation/ rising house prices , the amount owed becomes relatively smaller . OR AM I an optimist , as this is one idea of probably many - the point is to be comfortable and happy with the mortgage .

      Although this is what i,m doing at the moment i,ll have to pay-off some of the capital - sometime in the future , plus its only a small mortgage !

    Report on 11 July 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • The Bank Manager
    Love rating 54
    The Bank Manager said

    My mortgage company permits a 10% overpayment in each year and any excess will cause a penalty. So I gave instructions for them to make overpayments by DD from my account, but over a shorter term.

    So far, they have gone beyond the term we had agreed (I'm not fussed about that, so long as they don't penalise me, as the overpayment works in my favour) and they have failed to notice their error. I'm not about to tell them!

    Lord help them if they try to chase me for a penalty fee and anyway, the Capital balance is now inside personal loan territory values (I'm not about to be stupid and switch, if that's what you're thinking!!), that I can pay the lot off after my fixed period ends.

    I bet they'll try to stitch me up on a Deeds release fee though....? This might be a good story for LM.com to pursue?

    Report on 17 July 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love

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