Working out lump sum mortgage overpayments with Karl J's calculator

R

rjn

Registered User
Messages
15
I'm having trouble with this. I can see from the instructions that it should be possible to calculate the impact of making a one off lump sum extra repayment but nothing happens when I enter the sum and the month of the repayment. Am I missing something?
 
Try clicking on another cell to shift the focus to that cell. That should make the calculator process the number entered in the previous cell.
 
hmmmm, still not working, as soon as I click in another cell the month and year I have just typed (either in start month or finish month) disappear - and that's it

i am on a mac, perhaps that's the problem
 
I'm on a Mac also (OS X Leopard 10.5.2) without any problems using Safari 3.1 or Firefox 2.0.0.12.
It works with Tiger (10.4.x) as well. The software is tested on Mac as well as PC.

What's the exact URL you're going to? Perhaps you're going to an old version with a bug.

Do you have javascript disabled? It works for me with and without it enabled even though there's some javascript in the page to call the java applet with the right options when Internet Explorer isn't being used.
 
bingo, that works thanks!

so now a second question, does the lump sum payment have to shorten the life of the mortgage and keep the monthly payments the same, or can you reduce the size of the monthly payments and keep the same 30 year term?
 
The calculator doesn't include that possibility directly. You'd have to take the balance after the lump sum and the remaining period of the original term and feed them back into another instance of the calculator to see what the repayments would be if you stuck with the original term.

It should be possible to do if the bank has flexible repayment terms. It would be in the bank's interest to let you do that as they'd get more in interest payments from you that way. You might have to fix your repayment amount at a particular amount and increase it to compensate if there is an interest rate increase or you could fix it at an amount that will repay the loan a bit early if there's no further interest rate increases (or more quickly if they start coming down). I did something similar with my AIB mortgage.
 
Hi, when filling out the extra payments section - am I supposed to put a date in the start and end date tabs? If so what format is the date as it is not accepting any that I enter? (I did check the instructions but this isn't covered).

thanks.
 
You put the month natural number in those fields.

If it was the first month it is number 1. If it was the 23rd month the number is 23.

Unless you've got some really fancy repayment scenario or you want to validate previous payments you made I don't imagine that extra repayments tab is used very often. The prepayment data section copes with more basic situations like a fixed extra prepayment for the remainder of the mortgage.
 
I am thinking of overpaying my mortgage by about 200 each month, and I thought this was where I could work out how it would affect the term.
 
GeneralZod said:
You might have to fix your repayment amount at a particular amount and increase it to compensate if there is an interest rate increase or you could fix it at an amount that will repay the loan a bit early if there's no further interest rate increases (or more quickly if they start coming down). I did something similar with my AIB mortgage.
Click to expand...

Even with a variable rate mortgage? Not sure I follow you here entirely.
 
rjn said:
Even with a variable rate mortgage? Not sure I follow you here entirely.
Click to expand...

With a mortgage where the rate can vary. Either a traditional variable rate mortgage or a tracker mortgage. In other words one where the rate isn't guaranteed for a fixed period and there's no early repayment penalties.

If you make a lump sum repayment on a such a mortgage then it will be repaid before the original term if you let the repayments continue to vary with the interest rate.

However you can also fix the repayment amount and unless the interest rates go up enough to wipe out the gain from the lump sum repayment the mortgage will still be repaid before the end of the original term.

This way you get the certainty of the repayment amount of a fixed rate mortgage without the penalties of a higher interest rate and there are no penalties for further lump sum repayments.
 
rjn said:
so now a second question, does the lump sum payment have to shorten the life of the mortgage and keep the monthly payments the same, or can you reduce the size of the monthly payments and keep the same 30 year term?
Click to expand...


from experience with AIB, any lump-sum payment made will automatically reduce the amount of the monthly repayment, and leave the term the same (so they make more interest in the long-term I guess).

Otherwise, you will need to stipulate in writing if you wish the repayments to remain the same, thereby reducing the term instead.
 
Thanks very much, this is really helpful. We're with Bank of Ireland. I'll see what they have to say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top