If you are looking for a home but you know that paying a mortgage will be a severe drain on your finances, then perhaps you should look at getting an interest only mortgage. If you are unsure about what an interest only mortgage is and how it can help you, then this article can provide you with some useful tips on getting an interest only mortgage.
What is an interest only mortgage?
An interest only mortgage is a mortgage where you only pay back the interest on the loan, and none of the capital debt is repaid directly. Once you get to the end of the mortgage term, you will pay back the capital payment in full.
How do you pay back the capital?
Although you do not pay the capital back directly through your monthly mortgage payments, you indirectly pay for the capital. You pay for the capital through an investment fund or other lump sum. So, instead of repaying your mortgage capital each month through mortgage payments, you may monthly payments into an investment fund. Apart from investment funds, the other main ways to pay off the capital are:
Savings
Switching to a repayment mortgage Another lump sum such as inheritance
What is the advantage of this?
Although you are still making monthly payments into an investment fund, these payments are likely to be a lot lower than the monthly mortgage payments you would pay on a normal repayment mortgage. Your interest only payments will be low each month and so if you cannot afford to pay a lot each month at the moment, an interest only mortgage might be a good idea. Also, the idea is that the money you put into the investment fund will mature and leave you with enough money to pay off the capital at the end of the mortgage term as well as leaving you with some extra money.
Are there risks?
Of course, there are a number of potential risks of getting an interest only mortgage. The first problem is that if you are hoping to pay off the capital by switching to a repayment mortgage later on, you will be paying back a lot more money than if you started on a repayment mortgage. Although you may find it hard right now, getting a repayment mortgage to start with might be a better option. However, the main risk involved with interest only mortgages is that the investment fund you set up will not be enough to pay back the capital at the end of the mortgage term. If you cannot pay back the capital then you could end up losing your home at a time in your life that it will hit you hardest, such as at retirement age. If you are going to take out an interest only mortgage, make sure that the funding method you use is safe, and that you have contingency plans if the fund is insufficient to pay back the capital. If you do this, then getting an interest only mortgage can be a great way of keeping your payments low whilst you improve your income.
Around 1 out of ever 5 mortgage borrowers last year elected for an interest only mortgage scheme. Of these, approximately 30% were new first time house buyers. 'So what?', you may be saying. And here's the problem: in almost every single case where a borrower has elected to purchase a home with an interest-only mortgage, the scheme was one that was advised to them by a mortgage broker.
In nearly every single case, the borrower was not required to show that they could repay the principal sum borrowed on the day the mortgage matures. In other words, no borrower was asked to show that they had taken out an underlying savings program that would have sufficient funds to cover repayment of the principal or any short-fall in the borrowing on the maturity date. Sound familiar? Well it should do, because it has all of the underlying telltale signs of the recent endowment mortgage misselling scandal.
If you already have an interest only mortgage, you should not immediately panic that you're not going to be able to afford to repay your home loan when it matures. However, what you will immediately need to do is to take a look at your loan documents and see if you have been required to put in place some form of savings scheme that will help you to repay the principal outstanding on the loan on the day it matures. For example, is some part of your monthly repayments being put aside in an equity-linked savings account? If so, then there is a good chance that you should be OK; provided, of course, that the amount you are putting away is enough to cover your repayment and that you will not be expected to repay a significant shortfall.
If however, you discover that you have not been asked to put in place a savings scheme that is going to help you repay the principal sum of the home loan on the day that it matures, then you will need to contact your lender and ask them for some advice as to what action you should take next to rectify the situation. You should keep in mind that even if you have to make top up payments now, in order to get your program back on track, this is far less likely to cause you a significant financial problem the burden of having to pay a massive one-off lump sum (also known as 'balloon') on the day the loan matures.
In addition, if you find that your mortgage broker sold you an interest only home loan without having warned you of what the dangers were having such a scheme without putting in place some form of underlying savings scheme, you should consider talking this through with your Citizens Advice Bureau to see what can be done about this. Here, it is likely that the problems associated with interest-only home loans is going to mushroom in the next few years, especially when to true number of first time buyers who may have purchase their new home using this scheme and will likely have had little or no extra money to save comes to light. As such, it is extremely likely that both your lender and you local CAB will be aware of the problem.
The only issue that really remains is whether or not those who have an interest only home loan without any underlying form of savings scheme in place wish to face up to the fact that a very real and serious threat may now exist that the home they have been paying for all of these years may not actually be their one day.
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