| Understanding how your mortgage works is the key to | | | | experimented with as often as you like and until you |
| getting it at the best available price. You know that | | | | are entirely comfortable with what information needs |
| what you will be paying will depend on the size of the | | | | to be input and just what the results have to tell you. |
| mortgage, the number of years over which it is going | | | | There is something of a thrill in seeing the figures |
| to be repaid, and the interest rate applied. But how do | | | | emerge so easily and quickly from the mortgage |
| all these factors interrelate and, if one changes, what | | | | repayment calculator, since the sums involved are |
| happens to the other figures? | | | | really quite complicated. With repayment mortgages, |
| It is finding the answers to these fairly fundamental | | | | for example, they need to take into account that you |
| questions that makes a mortgage repayment | | | | will be paying interest on a diminishing outstanding |
| calculator such an indispensable tool. Finding such a | | | | mortgage balance, yet also that the interest payable |
| calculator is very simple - just key "mortgage | | | | needs to be "compounded" (outstanding interest due |
| repayment calculator" into your internet search engine | | | | needs to be added back to the diminishing balance of |
| and you will be presented with a wide range of | | | | the principal, because you will in effect be paying |
| websites hosting an easy-to-use calculator. An | | | | interest on the interest). Payments on interest-only |
| especially neat and straight forward calculator appears | | | | mortgages, of course, are a lot easier to calculate - |
| on the money pages of the Guardian newspaper. Not | | | | involving the multiplication of the amount borrowed, by |
| only does this particular version distinguish between | | | | the number of years, by the interest paid. |
| repayment and interest-only mortgages, but also lists | | | | The mortgage repayment calculator really comes into |
| the remaining mortgage balance you still owe after a | | | | its own, of course, when you have some serious |
| given number of years, together with the amount of | | | | decisions to make about your mortgage. If it is your |
| interest you will have paid by each year. | | | | first, then you will want to know down to the last |
| Using mortgage repayment calculators is simplicity | | | | penny just how much the monthly repayments will be |
| itself. There will be one box in which you fill in the size | | | | for the interest rate you are quoted. You may also |
| of the mortgage you want to borrow. A second box | | | | probably want to compare the shorter- and |
| will invite you to indicate the number of years over | | | | longer-term costs of a repayment mortgage against |
| which the mortgage is to be repaid and a third box will | | | | an interest only mortgage. The calculator will help you |
| ask for the applicable interest rate. | | | | compare the offers available from competing |
| The resulting calculation will show you what the | | | | mortgage lenders. If you already have a mortgage, |
| monthly repayments will be, the total sum of interest | | | | you might be interested in the effects of any rise or |
| that you will need to pay over the term of the | | | | reduction in interest rate. Would a remortgage be a |
| mortgage and (with most calculators) the balance | | | | sensible offer? Again, the mortgage repayment |
| outstanding on the mortgage over successive years. | | | | calculator will be an indispensable tool in helping you |
| The calculators are completely free to use, so can be | | | | decide. |