Reason 2

Repayment mortgages are more flexible than they look. While the standard repayment mortgage term is 25 years you can ask your lender to set yours up to last a longer or a shorter period if you want. There are plenty of online calculators which show how a different term will affect your monthly payments – one of the simplest to use is the Mortgage Affordability calculator on the Mail on Sunday’s financial site www.thisismoney.co.uk. A longer term and your payments will be lower, a shorter one and you will have to find more each month to clear your debt on schedule. Let’s say you’ve got a £170,000 mortgage and you’re paying 5.5 per cent interest. Your monthly repayments over 25 years would be £1,056. Extend the term so you take 30 years to clear the debt and your monthly payments fall to £975. If you want to clear the mortgage in 20 years your monthly payments are £1,185.