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Mortgage shrinker
carlgeldard - 13/5/08 at 12:37 PM

Has anybody on here had any experience with some thing like this. I saw it in the paper yesterday
but sound's to good to be true.
It claims to reduce my mortgage by 8 years

Carl


blakep82 - 13/5/08 at 12:42 PM

no personal experience (nor do i deal with them) i work for RBS mortgages (inc natwest) and quite a lot of people have them over normal types of mortgages...

i have to be careful what i say here, because personally i wouldn't touch any RBS products... they've done nothing but screw me over since i've worked there, any dealings i've had with RBS loans or anything they've messed up on. i have no faith in RBS to be honest.
having said that, the one account seems to be more a nat west thing, who seem to be better.

but in saying that, they seem to have a LOT of happy customers....


David Jenkins - 13/5/08 at 12:43 PM

My daughter and her partner had something very similar a few years ago - basically, when your current account has a lot of money in it (e.g. just after payday) you are charged less interest on the mortgage. The idea is that when you pay your normal amount each month more goes to pay off the capital and less to interest.

It is very useful when you have a reasonable amount of money coming in each month, and if you're good at juggling credit cards etc. to keep your current account as full as possible through the month.


coozer - 13/5/08 at 12:49 PM

I reduced my mortgage using a Viz top tip:

"To reduce your mortgage simply pay it off in one lump sump. Job done"

Worked perfectly for me


Paul TigerB6 - 13/5/08 at 01:12 PM

those type of offsetting accounts work for the right customer - ie one who insists or needs substantial sums on deposit. The interest rate charged might be higher than available though (no access to the full marketplace at the moment) so if you dont keep cash in the linked accounts then you can end up paying more than normal so be careful.

Have a look at MoneySupermarket.com for some mortgage rates and if they look comparable then you really should go to see a reputable Independant Financial Advisor to get some proper advice.

As said though, best way to pay your mortgage off is to pay lumps off when you can, or even quicker by making overpayments whenever you can (might be limits to this dependant on mortgage but is usually 10% of the outstanding balance per annum)


David Jenkins - 13/5/08 at 01:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer
I reduced my mortgage using a Viz top tip:

"To reduce your mortgage simply pay it off in one lump sump. Job done"

Worked perfectly for me


Worked for me too! I had a redundancy payment when I left BT - paid off the mortgage nicely.


Guinness - 13/5/08 at 01:35 PM

Each time my mortgage deal comes up for renewal I shop around for the best deal. Then instead of reducing my monthly payments, I reduce the number of years left to pay it off over.

This way my monthly payments stay the same, but so far I have managed to reduce my 25 year mortgage down 15, despite having only owned the house (our first) for 6 years? Hope that makes sense.

The savings in interest far out weigh the fun I could have with another £150 or so a month.

Mike


need4speed - 13/5/08 at 01:51 PM

Reduced ours by overpaying monthly and using any bonus I got as a one off payments. You will be surprised what a difference it can make.


ReMan - 13/5/08 at 02:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
Each time my mortgage deal comes up for renewal I shop around for the best deal. Then instead of reducing my monthly payments, I reduce the number of years left to pay it off over.

This way my monthly payments stay the same, but so far I have managed to reduce my 25 year mortgage down 15, despite having only owned the house (our first) for 6 years? Hope that makes sense.

The savings in interest far out weigh the fun I could have with another £150 or so a month.

Mike

Done exactly the ssame myself, even the same periods!
(You ar'nt paying mine for me are you?

Basically its the eqivelant of a regular monthly overpayment, for the less disciplined

Only downside is I'm re-mortgging right now and the deal are'nt there to be had at the moment

[Edited on 13/5/08 by ReMan]


StevieB - 13/5/08 at 06:46 PM

The offset mortgages are good as long as you're willing to put plenty of money into your account every month and never touch it (if you take it out before the mortgage ends, your progress goes backwards).

Best bet is to find the best possible mortgage deal, put your savings is an ISA to maximise your tax free investments and se the money to make a decent over payment at the end of mortgage year

Be careful to read any small print for early payment charges and capped limits on oevr payments - for instance I can pay off up to 20% of the remaining capital every year, beyond which I get hit with an early epayment charge.

The one acount does work well if you're self employed though, since all your income tax isn't due to be paid until 9 months after year end, so all your income tax payments can be offset against your mortgage until HMRC want it paid. Plus any VAT, NI etc only gets paid every quarter, so that can work against your mortgage too.


JoelP - 13/5/08 at 07:03 PM

quote:
Originally posted by StevieB
The one acount does work well if you're self employed though, since all your income tax isn't due to be paid until 9 months after year end, so all your income tax payments can be offset against your mortgage until HMRC want it paid. Plus any VAT, NI etc only gets paid every quarter, so that can work against your mortgage too.


would be great, except im paying CIS tax up front! So now HMRC owe ME 10k. No sign of interest there then!


Aboardman - 13/5/08 at 07:35 PM

my friend has one and she said as the mortgage and current is the same, when you go to the cash point it shows you are overdrawn to the value of your mortgage.

that would mean i would be over drawn £19,000


JoelP - 13/5/08 at 07:58 PM

wish mine was 19k!


StevieB - 13/5/08 at 08:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
wish mine was 19k!


Yeah, stick a 0 on the end and it's just about there for me