Does anyone make extra mortgage payments? They say just paying one or two extra times a year can help you over the long run to pay off your mortgage a iittle sooner.

It does (provided you have no pre-payment penalty) and it saves you a fortune in interest.

It's great if you can do it. You just have to make sure to specify that you want that amount to be applied directly to the principal of the loan.

Absolutely - I'm currently trying to pay equal to my normal mortgage payments as an overpayment.

The reason being is simple - I have the cash now, but running my own business means a lot of uncertainty, so at least if my business were to go belly-up, at least I should hopefully have paid off a reasonable chunk from my mortgage.

Although I originally signed up for a 30 year mortgage, to allow for lower payments and therefore more room in case of trouble, if I were to continue my overpayments at the current rate, I could have my mortgage paid off in 8 years. Doing so would save me around £100k+ on interest repayments.

I made sure I was fine to make overpayments before taking out my mortgage, and so far so good.

I pay 15% extra on my mortgage every month and it will take over 10 years off the life of my loan.

My oldest and her husband recently bought their first home. I made her insist on no early payment penalty. She earns the larger salary and half of her husbands salary goes directly to the principal.....the rest to savings. Her 20 year mortgage will be paid off in 5 years! She will be 29.

Firstly, congratulations on being savvy enough to take on a debt that you knew you could eliminate early. Secondly, the statement above is an amazing fact that more people should be aware of, the amount of money one can save by paying over the loan payment. Think of what would happen to finance coorporations if everyone had the ability to pay off so quickly!

Yeah regarding the last line. A friend of mine told me that you actually get a penalty if you want to buy a house cash! There is some sort of fine or penalty for doing so. Can you believe that?

It's ironic - I actually wanted a bigger house with a bigger mortgage, but the lenders wouldn't have that with my being a first-time buyer.

The savings are huge, though - I couldn't believe it - on the projection over 30 years, the amount paid was more than double the amount loaned.

I wish I could do that. It would be much to my advantage.