Paying Extra on Mortgage Payment

[Jodi1980]

Does anyone pay extra each month? How do you make sure the money is going towards the principle?

 

[mtemm]

for our mortgage there is a line you can write in for extra towards the principle, as well as lines for extra towards interest, etc.

 

[SplshMtn99]

Yes, I pay extra. I mark it on the line that says: Extra Principle. And I check the statement the next month to make sure that's where it went. No problems so far.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We do the same as others have stated...... there is a special line for it. It's amazing what a little extra each month can do to shorten the life of your mortgage!

 

[Kimberle]

Yes, we do. It will dramatically shorten the life of your loan.

Each bank is slightly different. Our 1st bank required us to write a seperate check. Our new bank has a line on our coupon.

Just make sure you indicate exactly where the money is to go (late fee, escrow, principal) or the banks get very confused.

We just refinanced w/ a 15 year loan. With our extra payments, we should have our home paid off w/in 9 or 10 years.

 

[Robinrs]

If you have an amortization schedule, you can check the principle for the next future month, pay that amount with each current payment and shorten your mortgage by YEARS! Do find out how your lender handles it and make sure this amount is going towards your principle. The amortization schedule will give you the exact amount and it's usually lower than what you can guess.

 

[dawnsb]

We pay extra each month too. It's amazing how much a mortgage costs if you let it go the full length! We have a 30 yr loan, but hope to have it paid off in 10 - 12 yrs. That's a lot of money for us to use as we wish!

Dawn

 

[perdidobay]

I have a 15 year mortgage that I am paying extra principle on, it will be paid off in 9 years
I do the same as everyone else, put the extra amount on the line provided on the statement.

 

[KimRaye]

We were paying extra for about the last 8-9 years on our 30 year mortgage. We just recently refinanced down to a 10 year mortgage so, you can just imagine how helpful those extra payments were!! We plan on doing the same with the 10 year loan as well. With the old loan, there was a line to check for extra principal. Not sure what the new loan will be like yet.

 

[Lewski709]

In addition to writing in the box for principle, I mark the check. What if the slip was lost. In the memo box, I write: Acct#.........., payment of 487.88 and extra 350.00 to principle only. That way there are NO questions!

 

[believe]

DH pays the regular payment on line and writes a check for the extra principal payment. He notes on the check that it is for principal only.

 

[DawnCt]

We started with a 15 year mortgage and now have less than 5 years left. As our mortgage dwindles, there is less and less to deduct. I would rather save the extra that I would put on the principle in another vehicle, stocks, bonds, etc than reduce my mortgage at this point. Most of our payment, five years or less out is going to principle anyway. I actually tried to remortgage the balance for remaining five years and the rates never got low enough to even break even.

 

[mom2boys]

We have the same "problem" as DawnCt. We have about 10 yrs left but don't owe much. (At least not by today's standards). We actually attempted to refinance without taking out additional principal & no lenders were interested in us.

Another suggestion, which works if you have a coupon book - DH likes to get ahead on the actual payments. By that I mean he likes to get an entire month ahead on mortgage. Our mortgage is due the 1st of each month. Naturally, the Dec payment has been made. If there is enough extra money after his next paycheck, he will make the Jan payment. Then prior to Jan 1st he will make the Feb payment. Since the payment arrives early, a larger percentage goes to principal. This works nicely because when large expenses crop up we can "skip" a mortgage payment & not worry. (Of course, my example won't happen this month since it is Christmas.) DH had been making double payments about every other month but that didn't leave the option of "skipping" a month.

 

[KatelynnsAuntie]

I pay an extra $10.10 a month just to even it out. For example, instead of $89.90 I pay $100 (this is just an example, I really pay more!) just because it's easier to subtract from my checking account. And there is a line on the coupon that I write it in as extra principle.