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Home arrow Mortgages arrow Mortgage features arrow 10 ways to be mortgage-free
10 ways to be mortgage-free Print E-mail
29 October 2008
For modern homeowners, there has never been more of a drive to be debt-free. But if 'debt-free' also refers to your mortgage, you will need to start viewing this loan differently - not to mention start moving fast. The first thing to do is really get to grips with how much the debt is costing you.

 

For example, monthly repayments are typically calculated over a 25-year period. So, if you have a £200,000 repayment mortgage priced at 6.5%, the lender will ask for £1,350.41 for each month during the term. This means that you will end up paying back a staggering £405,124.30 to the lender – more than double what you borrowed.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. These days, most mortgage deals allow you to overpay by 10 per cent each year penalty-free, while others allow you to make unlimited overpayments. But even if you can muster up an extra £100 a month, you can save a fortune in interest and be debt-free years earlier.

By overpaying £100 a month on the same £200,000 loan, priced at 6.5%, you would repay a more respectable total of £368,915.78 back to the lender. That means an interest saving of £36,208.52 and being mortgage-free 3.8 years ahead of schedule.

Here are 10 more ways to raise a £100 a month to pour into your mortgage debt:

1. Move off your SVR

If you are sitting on your lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR) – some of which are priced in excess of 7% – you could be paying well over the odds for nothing. “Typically our clients save between £50 and £130 per month just by switching rate, whether with their own lender or moving to a new one,” says Rob Clifford, managing director of broker, Mortgageforce.

2. Keep your mortgage on the move
Once you have got the best deal for you, don’t rest back on your laurels. “It is madness that thousands of borrowers consistently don’t bother moving to the best rates,” says Mr Clifford. “Many feel that the process will be hassle or that there are prohibitive costs but this just isn’t true these days. Even the legal and survey costs are sometimes paid by a new lender so, whatever you do, don’t just sit back and take no action.”

3. Find a mortgage lender that calculates interest daily
Every time you pay off some capital of your mortgage, you would assume that the subsequent reduction of interest is immediate. However, this is not necessarily the case. Some lenders, such as Bristol & West and Leeds Building Society charge annual interest on most of their mortgage products. This means that any reduction in interest is only totted up at the end of the year – and in the mean time, you are theoretically left paying more than you owe.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at broker, John Charcol, said: “Paying interest based on an annual calculation adds on about 0.1% to your interest rate over a 25-year term but becomes more significant for shorter-term deals.” However, on the other side of the coin, it would take more than just daily interest calculation to make a mortgage the best deal, Mr Boulger adds.

4. Clear outstanding loans and credit cards

Looking at your monthly list of commitments, it is likely that some of them will be repayments on personal loans and credit cards, which can attract extortionate rates of interest. Getting these paid off will put you on an even keel as well as free up some extra monthly cash.

If clearing credit card debts in the near future looks unlikely, make sure you are at least paying over the minimum required – usually 2% of the balance – and that you have taken a pair of scissors to the card to ensure the balance can’t get any heavier.

5. Move your credit card balance to a 0% deal

While you are paying down your credit card, it also makes sense to switch it over to a deal that charges 0% interest for a given time period. These days, this will incur a balance transfer fee of around 3%, so you are likely to have to pay £75 for switching your £2,500 balance.
 
But it’s usually still worth it. For example, if you had a £2,500 balance and repaid £75 per month at rate of 15.9% APR you would pay approximately £320 in interest over 12 months. By switching this balance to 0% for 12 months you would save £245 over the year, after allowing for the fee.

6. Save money by switching energy suppliers

These days it couldn’t be easier to switch suppliers and save money – simply log onto one of the many switching websites, such as simplyswitch.com or uswitch.com and follow the instructions. Once you are on the cheapest deal, you can take further measures to reduce energy costs, such as switching off electrical appliances at night and boycotting the tumble dryer in favour of fresh air.

7. Make sure you are not paying for unnecessary insurances
If money was no object, we would all insure ourselves up to the hilt. But think carefully if you are paying out for an unnecessary policy. The average cost of MPPI is around £5 per £100 of cover for example. So using the above mortgage repayment of £1,350, the policy would cost a hefty £67.50 a week that could be better-spent elsewhere.

8. Build nest eggs, using interest earned to pay mortgage capital

Why not put away a lump sum, or set amount each month, and siphon off the interest earned for your mortgage? Find the best-paying savings rates here

9. Give your bonus to your mortgage

Truly flexible mortgages, such as offset deals, allow borrowers to make unlimited overpayments at no penalty. In this case, why not give your annual work bonus to your mortgage? After all, it’s really a present to yourself.  For example, if you put a lump sum of £5,000 into your £200,000 mortgage (payable at 6.5%) you would save around £6,380 in interest and be able to redeem the loan 0.7 years early.

10. Make everyday savings
But maybe saving £100 a month is simpler than any of this. Bear in mind that £100 a month is just £25 a week. You can save this by making small adjustments to your daily routine such as taking your own lunch into work, sacrificing your morning take-out coffee or opting to cycle to the station to save on parking fees.




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