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What are Flexible Mortgages?
You are looking for the best mortgage offer. And you may have hear about flexible mortgages on TV commercials or seen in a newspaper. But you are confused and don’t really know what a flexible mortgage is. Or maybe you have already a mortgage and you would like to know more about your other mortgage possibilities.
A flexible mortgage allows you, to a certain extent, to change your mortgage payments in order to suit your ability to pay. This type of mortgage is particularly useful if you want to pay off your loan more quickly. Numerous flexible features are becoming widely common and they are not anymore confined to loans that have 'flexible' in their name.
First feature is overpayments. You are allowed to pay more than your normal monthly mortgage payment and/or pay off extra chunks of the loan without fees. This can lower your monthly interest payments (because the amount you owe has decreased) or allow you to pay back your loan more quickly. Choose a mortgage where interest on what you owe is calculated daily or monthly, if you want to benefit from this great feature.
Underpayments and payment holidays are often used too in flexible mortgage deal. In this case you will pay less than the normal monthly payment for a limited period (for instance, six or 12 months) or you can stop making payments. If you lose your job or take time off this option may prevent you from getting into financial troubles. However lenders will ask you to have made some overpayments. Beside interests being charged and added to the outstanding loan you will have to pay higher repayments later on, or need to extend the term of your mortgage to keep the normal repayments affordable. Whatever you choose it will end up paying more for your mortgage in the long run.
Third is the possibility to borrow extra loan without further approval from your lender, if the total loan does not go over an overall limit. Or, you may also be able to “borrow back” against earlier overpayments.
Is flexible mortgage suited to your need? If you are likely to use these options and all other terms of the mortgage meet your needs then the answer is positive. But if not, a regular mortgage may be cheaper or more suitable for you in terms of security to fix your payments for instance.
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