Kathy Stielsa

Posts Tagged ‘credit’

A mortgage loan is in most cases 30 years in length and they are designed to make owning a home affordable for all people. The length of the loan can reduce payment amounts but also increase the interest paid. The ability to pay the mortgage off early will save thousands in interest and allow people the freedom of true home ownership much sooner than they anticipated.

If the loan was obtained at a high interest rate due to a low credit score and you have since increased your score you might consider refinancing. Anytime the loan can be refinanced with a smaller interest rate it should be done, this saves thousands of dollars in interest but will also reduce your monthly payment. A reduced monthly payment will assist you in being able to afford an early pay off method.

There is one way to pay your mortgage off early and feel none of the affects to your budget. You can pay your mortgage loan bi-weekly instead of monthly and receive the benefits of having two extra payments being made that go directly to the principle of the loan each year. This is the easiest method to reducing the life of your mortgage loan as it requires no changes in your lifestyle or budget.

You can choose to pay a large lump sum annually. The large amount of money goes directly to the principle and can dramatically reduce your loan. Most lenders will have limits of the amount of over payment you can pay without penalty so speak to them and find out what limits you are restricted to if any. You might be able to shave off 5 or ten years using this method. It can be hard to come up with so much money at once for many people.

If you do not have the ability to come up with a large amount of money each year for a one time large overpayment you can pay over each month. You will still need to find out if you will be given any penalties from your lender before deciding the amount. You pay an over-age amount each month with your payment and it will work the same way as the large onetime payment. Your loan will be greatly reduced and it will be much easier to come up with the extra money each month than the one time large sum.

The most effective way to pay your mortgage off faster is to combine methods. The most common way to do this is by paying an additional amount on your bi-weekly payments. The bi-weekly payments you will not feel at all in your budget and will only notice the overage each 2 weeks. You can pay whatever amount you feel comfortable with and make sure it is affordable. If some weeks you are able to pay more than you can certainly do that. The overages as well as the two extra payments per year can reduce your loan life up to 15 years depending on the amount of overage you choose. You may be lucky enough to have a lender who does not penalize for early payoff, in this case you can pay as much as you wish and never see a penalty..