Fool.co.uk: Use base rate to overpay your mortgage

Date:Tuesday 16th December 2008
Author: Susanna Kavka

Mortgage holders with tracker and standard variable rate deals should take advantage of the reduction in the base rate to overpay their mortgages.

This is the advice given by Jane Baker on finance website Fool.co.uk.

While a fellow writer on the site, Cliff D'Arcy, suggested putting any extra cash from the base rate cut into a high interest savings account, Ms Baker's recommendation was to overpay the mortgage.

She explained that this would have the mortgage cleared sooner and save money on interest and also noted that as the best deals are saved for those with large deposits, it is important to keep one's loan-to-value at the lowest level possible.

"The quickest way to do that is to pay your mortgage down as quickly as you can by overpaying," she wrote.

Recently, Mr D'Arcy also wrote about mortgages for Fool.co.uk.

Commenting on the large number of mortgages taken off the market in November, he said this was due to lenders needing to reconsider the prices due to the base rate cut.