Does this financially ring true?

[ManyBooksLittleTime]

We bought our house nearly 20 years ago for 245k. Now, 19 years later, we still have 203k left on the mortgage. I know the first years is basically paying interest , but only 42k in 19 years??? We have had good interest rates too.Also, my husband reckons it will go down to 181k by August next year. Please can soneone more astute with finance let me know if these numbers can be right?

@ManyBooksLittleTime glad your mind is at rest here and shows why other pp should give the benefit of the doubt instead of always jumping to the conclusion that men are arseholes.

I am glad you have got a clear answer now. It is really important for all of us to understand the family finances. I am teaching the DC as well. As long as you are where you should be then that is a good starting point.

I agree with a PP do not commit to £2500 payments per month unless you are 100% sure you will always make them. My monthly payment is around £1350 but I routinely overpay £1000+ a month (I can OP 10% of the original balance each year without a penalty). If I ever had a tough couple of months I could drop the overpayments and just pay the mortgage amount. If on the other hand, my monthly payment was £2350 I would have no wiggle room at all. Unless your finances are absolutely rock solid I would see if a lower monthly payment with a longer term and overpayments is a better route.

If you are brave enough you can post a statement of affairs on the MSE Debt Free Wannabee forum and they will dissect your budget and make suggestions. Or if you want mortgage focus the Mortgage Free Wannabees on MSE might give you some ideas.

So pleased you’ve go your head around it and it makes sense for you now.

And it was nothing sinister!

Try Martin Lewis MSE website for mortgages, OP. We don’t do anything financial without going through there

Glad it’s all sorted and makes sense.

I agree with pp's who have suggested not tying yourselves into what may well become unmanageable monthly payments.

Far better to save whatever you can, and either overpay on an annual basis or use the savings towards reducing fees/LTV if you find yourselves needing to remortgage in future.

Glad your mind is now at rest.

You need to contact your lender immediately and request copies of mortgage statements. Assuming the lender is reputable, your husband must have borrowed far more than he's disclosed. Are you joint mortgagees? Or is the mortgage in his name only?

Glad you got clarity OP x

How much more has he borrowed? You need some straight talking time with your husband! Has he been ‘in charge’ of the mortgage? How will you pay off that much in 8 years??? I’ve just taken charge of our mortgage and moved things around (paying more off) to be sure it will be paid off in the 9 years remaining.

you need to see statements and projections from the mortgage provider.
As you've borrowed more since the original loan, its hard to tell if ok, but your long term security depends on being mortgage free at some point.

I

You forgot that you moved house and took out a large amount to be able to do so?

With internet banking you can log in and see historical statements. It might pay to do this and ensure you have access to do this, rather than just leave it up to DH.

the bit about going back to a 27 year loan for it to be affordable rings bells. Have you considered getting independent financial advice (together) before making this next change? Just to confirm you are both on the right track with your thinking…

Yup. This is the part which doesn't ring true.

Who forgets they moved to a new, more expensive house and had to take out a bigger mortgage to cover it, and then wonders why their mortgage isnt as paid off as the original one would have been?

Bananas.

Remember that your mortgage has, in REAL terms, got smaller.

£240k 20 years ago is the equivalent today of £475k

So your efforts in paying down your mortgage may be greater than you think.

I just turned to page 12 of the posts at random, and looked at the first dozen:

Sorry but I'd be removing the husband from this conversation
He is secretly paying off a huge chunk in addition each month (to hide the fact he borrow ~£100k without your knowledge
I think your husband is lying to you.
Your husband is lying to you.
You need to have a tough talk with your husband about finances
a solicitor. You don't need his permission
He's not necessarily deceitful
The lenders intention to foreclose and sell the house
Because he’s lying to her. Clearly.
This sounds very ominous.

Oh wait, the OP was a bit ditzy... Oops, what a lark.

Such intense misogyny here.

My house was valued at £250k in 2004. So 18 years ago. It’s a normal (4/5 bed or 1/2 receptions, two bathrooms, double garage).

In 1997/8 house prices were just beginning to rise again after the fall in 1992. My house was valued the same when I remortgaged in 1997 as when I bought it in 1992 (56k) By 2001 when I sold, it had gone up to 140k

Price rises happened at different times in different parts of the country.

Here in Yorkshire, after the 1990s crash, prices stayed low until 2002 and by 2004 had more than doubled in price.

Then, after the 2007 crash, prices didn't get back up to those levels until about 5 years ago, so the early 2010s boom that happened in London didn't happen here.

A PP said that in the Aberdeen area prices have only just got back to 2007 levels in the post covid boom, ie they were low for well over a decade.

I remember the dates precisely because the first time I was in an IVA that I remortgaged out of when I suddenly had loads of equity and the second time we moved and could see houses selling for less than we'd paid for our current house for years.

Misogyny is hatred towards women. How is that misogyny? Do you mean misandry?

@WhoopItUp Misogyny is hatred towards women. How is that misogyny? Do you mean misandry?
Like Dominic Raab says, it's just as wrong if it's a woman against a man 😂

If you just turned to page 12 at random and haven’t read all the OP’a posts then perhaps you haven’t been presented with the same story as everyone else.

The but in particular where the husband was trying to explain that they were paying off the interest only. The “overpayments”. 8 years left of the term. This all conflicts with the latest update about a more expensive house and having a repayment mortgage.

I've got a bit of a cold so maybe my brain isn't working at full steam but I still don't understand this.

You borrowed £245k, then an extra £50 when you moved, then an extra £5

Sorry posted accidentally!

I've got a bit of a cold so maybe my brain isn't working at full steam but I still don't understand this.

You borrowed £245k, then an extra £50k when you moved, then an extra £5k. So about £300k in total?

Over 19 years you've paid off £100k. But you're going to pay off twice that amount in less than half the time now, even though interest rates are much higher?

Please be double, triple, quadruple sure of what's going on. Did you speak to the mortgage provider about it?

For clarity, I know you can reduce the term and pay it off quicker etc. But I still don't understand the dates. If you remortgaged 13 years ago, but now have to make huge monthly payment to pay it off on time, then does that not mean you have fallen behind somehow? Or borrowed more at some point? Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

I understand why you are not £100k paid back had you stayed in the same house etc as we had all assume. I have had a mortgage since 1983 but we have had 4 houses in that time and each time you start again as it were.

For the future I would do the following -1. obtain log in on line access to the mortgage account and once amonth print out the statement and put it on a paper fiel or download to your computer. 2. Make sure you have the opening new mortgage document which sets out what you borrowed, the rate and all the other statutory informaion and keep that on your file 3. Check the online banking once a week at least (and paper bank statements if you get these) to see what is going out for the mortgage. 4 Once a year do a sense check of what the capital outstanding now is.

Holly may be right but you would need to see the paperwork to check. However it seems like there were house moves and also cash taken out of the equity for living expenses etc which explains where they now are.

The big issue now is do you make high monthly repayments now whilst you can afford it (what you are now doing and seems wise to me) or not commit to that but just save the same amounts up and pay off 10% off a year of the capital which is usually permitted without any penalties but giving you the flexibility in case you need that money ( but that risks one of you spending that money so not always the best choice)