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Interest Only Mortgages Are They A Good Thing Or A Bad One?

By: Chris Clare
 

If interest only mortgages sound enticing, keep in mind that they can also be very dangerous if you don't have a suitable repayment plan in place. This article in no way recommends that you should acquire an interest only mortgage. If you do, however, it is your responsibility to make sure you know just what you're getting into if you acquire one, and that you take the risks they present very seriously.

Before you choose a mortgage, you have a lot of decisions to make. Not least among these is what it's going to cost you. If at the end of everything, you can't afford the mortgage is chosen, then what you've done is simply waste time.

There are many ways to reduce or increase what your overall mortgage payment will be on a monthly basis. As an example, a long discounted rate will always be more expensive than a short discounted rate. This is also true for fixed rates. The longer their repayment, the more expensive they're going to be for you in the long run.

If you want to lower your monthly payments, you can adjust what the terms of your mortgage actually are. For example, if you lengthen the mortgage term, your monthly payments will decrease. Similarly, if you shorten your mortgage term, your monthly payments will increase, because you are paying off what you've borrowed in a shorter period of time.

The obvious way to reduce the cost of every mortgage is to borrow less. The reasoning behind this is simple the less you borrow the less you have to repay. That said many people do not have the ability to borrow less they are invariably set on a particular property and very few of us are able to put up a greater deposit than the one we have agreed to so another solution is needed.

Interest only mortgages are just what they sound like. With interest only mortgages, all you pay on a monthly basis is the interest on the principal you've borrowed. This means that your monthly payments are going to be lower, but you should also know that you're not paying back any of the money you originally Broward to buy your home. This means that your monthly payment is going to be much lower, sometimes as much as 25% less. At least on paper, this saves you a lot with your monthly expenses.

However, by doing this, you're not repaying the loan you originally borrowed. If you do this, you are in some ways cheating the system because the loan amount you actually borrowed is going to remain outstanding for the entire time you owe the debt. If you don't do anything until you reach the end of your mortgage, keep in mind that you will still owe the entire amount of your original debt to the lender at the end of your mortgage.

It is fair to say that there are some very genuine reasons to arrange an interest only mortgage one of the main ones is if you are expecting a lump sum of money in the future such as an inheritance or the maturity of an investment. In these cases it is more than fair and appropriate to arrange an interest only debt on the basis that you know were the money is coming from to repay it.

However, some people acquire interest only mortgages with no such resources in sight. Some people do this because they truly do not have the financial resources to pay a regular mortgage or are in financial difficulty, but still want the property they acquired. They arrange to have an interest only mortgage so that they can have the house they want. If this is your situation, I suggest you give yourself a time limit with your interest only mortgage. At the end of that time, say five years, you set yourself the goal of changing your mortgage to one that is traditional, where principal is paid along with interest when you make your mortgage payments. If you don't make a plan like this, you're going to owe the entire principal at the end of your mortgage term. Therefore, you need to make sure that the principal is going to be repaid at some point if you wish to stay in your home.

So in summary if you feel you need to do an interest only mortgage arrange it with your eyes wide open. Make sure you have some plan to repay it, even if that plan is to change the debt in years to come, there needs to be some idea in place to make this financial decision a sound one.

Article Source: Main Articles

For lots of help and advice on interest only mortgages come along to MortgageRoute.co.uk quality mortgage advice online

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