Mortgage and interest

[Pumpkittenspice]

I bought my house a year and a half ago now, but the balance doesn’t seem to be decreasing.

I feel like I’m throwing my money into a black hole because as soon as I pay my mortgage for the month, the interest is added straight back on.

Please tell me it’ll get better over time, it’s so demoralising!

Yes it will get better over time.

Put your figures into a mortgage calculator (Money Saving Expert has them) and you can see the projected repayment graph.

Can you overpay? Most morgage arrangements allow you to pay up to 10% extra in addition to the minimum repayments. Like with credit card debt, if you only pay the minimum each month it takes a very long time to clear the debt. Even an extra £10 per month would make a difference. However, the "affordability checks" that you had to go through before you were allowed the mortgage would have been focussed on deciding whether you would still be able to afford the mortgage if interest rates shoot up and your monthly minimum became £100-£200 more each month - so the sensible thing to do is to pre-empt that and put in as much as you possibly can.

I do actually overpay by £10 per month. It would be more, but we’re on a 5% fixed rate

Thank you! I currently overpay by £10 per month, which will knock off 11 months over the course of my term.