5 ways to pay off your mortgage faster

Here are five simple steps that could help you on your way to owning your home sooner than you expected, by Melanie Tesoriero, from Aussie.

Typically, when you take out a home loan you are given a period of 25 or 30 years to pay it off. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to chip away at your mortgage for this long.

These five strategies could help you get ahead on your mortgage, which could save you a significant amount of money on interest charges in the process:

1. Check you’re paying a competitive rate
2. Pay a little extra off your home loan each month
3. Make lump sum payments into your home loan
4. Make your loan repayments fortnightly
5. Consider a home loan offset account

1. Check you’re paying a competitive rate

At the time of writing, Canstar data showed there is gap between the highest and lowest home loan comparison rates on Canstar’s database, and if your home loan is at the expensive end of the spectrum, you could be behind the eight ball from the start.

In a hotly contested mortgage market (there are over 4,000 home loans on Canstar’s database), lenders are usually keen for business, so presuming you are seen to be a good candidate (such as having a good credit rating and the means to meet repayments), you may be very eligible for a more competitively priced home loan interest rate.

The thing is, many lenders offer their best deals for new customers. So don’t be afraid to check out what’s available elsewhere, or  to try to negotiate a better home loan rate with your current lender.

2. If you can, pay a little extra off your home loan each month

Regularly paying a bit more off your loan is a simple way you may be able to pay off your home loan faster. And you don’t have to pay a lot extra to potentially reap valuable rewards. Paying just a dollar a day more into your loan could help you pay it off months earlier.

As a hypothetical example, on a 25-year home loan of $350,000 with a rate of 3.89% for instance, paying $1 a day extra above the minimum repayment off your loan could see you become mortgage-free up to eight months ahead of schedule, and cut the overall interest cost by as much as $5,500. Make it $2 a day extra and you could save $10,717 in total interest and cut 15 months from that 25-year loan term. Not a bad result for less than the price of a daily cappuccino! However, check with your mortgage provider to determine whether you will need to pay any fees for making extra repayments or for the early termination of your mortgage and factor these into your own calculations.

Canstar’s mortgage calculator can show you how making extra repayments could help you pay off your loan sooner.

3. Make lump sum payments into your home loan

Do you receive an unbudgeted lump sum of cash each year, like a tax refund or work bonus? These windfalls are a handy source of cash that could help you pay off your home loan sooner.

It’s likely money you’ve learned to live without to this point, and if so, chances are you won’t miss money it. Using a windfall to make a lump sum payment on your home loan (or in an offset account – more on that later) could dramatically accelerate a loan reduction because the money comes straight off the loan balance.

On the same $350,000 home loan mentioned earlier, if you had been making the minimum repayments but used a $2,000 tax refund to make a lump sum repayment on your loan could cut up to three months from the loan term and see you save over $3,000 in interest. It could be a great way to get more bang for your buck.

You could consider making it an annual habit to pay lump sums into your loan to supersize your interest savings. However, again it could pay to check with your lender whether any fees or restriction apply.

4. Make your loan repayments fortnightly

If making extra repayments isn’t an option, you could try paying more frequently.

Rather than making repayments monthly, you could aim to pay half your regular repayment each fortnight. Over the course of a year, you’ll make 26 repayments. That’s equal to 13 regular monthly payments, instead of the 12 monthly repayments your lender will typically ask for. So you’ll make one month’s extra repayment each year without too much impact on your hip pocket.

Do note, the success of this strategy can depend on how your lender treats monthly versus weekly repayments.

5. Consider a home loan offset account

A home loan offset account is basically a savings or transaction account attached to your home loan. Instead of being paid separate interest on your savings, the value of any cash in an offset account is instead deducted from your home loan balance, with interest calculated on the difference.

As an example, if you have a home loan of $400,000 and savings of $20,000 in a 100% offset account, the interest you pay will be based on a loan of $380,000. This can reduce your monthly interest costs, meaning if your regular repayments stay the same, more of each payment goes towards paying down the loan principal, which could in turn help you pay off your home loan sooner.

Offset accounts can be a savvy way to make your savings work for you as you’ll normally save more in home loan interest than you’d likely earn on a separate savings account. Your spare cash in an offset account is usually still accessible, though it can take some discipline to avoid dipping into the linked account. You can achieve a similar result if your home loan provider offers a redraw facility, though check for any fees or time delays that may apply to accessing the money. Note, some home loan packages that include offset accounts or redraw facilities may charge higher fees and rates than packages that do not include these features, so it is a good idea to take this into consideration when comparing.

Learn more: Offset account versus redraw facility: What’s the difference?

Why should I pay off my home loan early?

There are a lot of reasons why paying off your home loan sooner, if you are able, can be a positive move. Paying off your mortgage faster could allow you to:

• Pay less interest: The more you pay down the balance of your home loan, the less you could have to pay in interest in the long term, leaving more cash in your pocket over time, and you may also be able to worry less about rate hikes.
• Build equity faster: The more you pay down the balance of your home loan, likewise, the more equity you will have in your property, which you can then use in other ways to meet financial goals like purchasing an investment property.
• Be free of debt: Paying off your mortgage faster can allow you to own your place outright without a lender to answer to, and for many there’s arguably no better feeling.

It is a good idea to check with your mortgage provider to determine whether there are any fees involved in any of the above strategies and to do your own calculations. You can also consider speaking with a financial adviser for more personalised advice.

Cover image source: Miljan Zivkovic/Shutterstock.com.