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Tip number 1
This is a tip I live by now, Pay off your mortgage as quick as possible, the quicker you do it the better, I will give you an example, If you borrowed £50,000 over the term of the mortgage you will pay double the initial amount lent to you so you will pay £100,000 give or take a few thousand, that's a very healthy profit for your bank.
The way I think about it is, don't put money into an ISA, you will only earn £150 interest on a £3000, put it on your mortgage and you will save the same amount again, (I have a fixed rate mortgage with the Halifax, and they allow me to overpay up to 10% of the initial loan capital, and as soon as I overpay it, it comes off the mortgage capital that day),
Before you overpay anything though go and have a word with a adviser in branch, or call up the mortgage department, hopefully it will be a 0800 number, if it isn't, be cheeky like me and ask in my local Halifax branch, and they let me use their phone, as the number for my mortgage helpline is an 0845 number,
Question 1
How much can I overpay each year without being penalized.
Question 2
Does the money I overpay come straight of the mortgage capital.
Tip number 2
Still on mortgages, but this time it's home insurance, most people take out home insurance with the same provider that you have your mortgage with (I did for 3 years), they probably said in their sales patter that it is easier, etc, etc, but every year you stay with them the quote gets higher and higher, what they don't tell you is you DO NOT have to stay with them, you should move your buildings/contents insurance every year, as the insurance market is so competitive you will most definitely find a cheaper quote than the renewal quote from your existing insurer.
Tip number 3
You only need buildings insurance to satisfy the mortgage company, so if you have a lot of low value items, then it may be an idea to cancel the contents part of your insurance, when I did this with Halifax, they refunded the whole years payments on my contents insurance.
Tip number 3.1
Sticking with insurance for the moment, everyone pays their insurance monthly on top of the mortgage, but what they don't tell you is they effectively tack it onto your mortgage for the year and charge you interest at the same rate as your mortgage, this could be a big chunk by the end of the year, mine was £30 extra in interest alone, so pay it like you do with your car insurance, in one lump sum, and you may even get a bigger discount than just saving the interest, they knocked of another £18 for being "a valued customer", so I saved a total of £48.