Cian Carolan

Or how much can I overpay this year without incurring any penalties?

And if I was to exceed that amount,

What way is that going to impact me in terms of penalties?

How much is that going to cost me?

So you can ask these questions straight out to your lenders.

And they're important questions to ask because you don't want to take all the good out of an overpayment by being hit with big penalties, right?

And it is a minefield because we've got 10 different lenders in the market and they all have different variations in terms of how much you can overpay.

Some will allow you to overpay 10% of the balance each year, but you're limited to two overpayments.

So you might overpay...

you know, 5% at the start of the year and then you might do two more percent mid-year.

But that's your, that's your allocation for the year because it's 10% or two overpayments with some lenders.

So you need to be really careful before you overpay.

What are the parameters?

How many times can I do that this year?

And practically speaking, how do I do it?

Is it a transfer or can they set that up automatically to happen without me now having to do anything moving forward?

So it really depends and it's just a quick conversation with your lender.

can do that as well depends on the lender okay so if you're on a fixed rate very few lenders will allow regular overpayment it's it goes back to do they facilitate only regular overpayments at a certain limit or do they facilitate lump sum overpayments and can i only do one or two of them so it really depends on the lender so you may be dictated to by the lender in terms of how much you can do

And if it's a case that you don't have a lump sum to invest but you have a regular amount that you could, or to overpay even, and let's say you have that lump sum and you're not in a position to do a regular overpayment but they only facilitate regular, then you might have to look at an alternative option with that money until you're out of a fixed rate and can then overpay.

Or if it's a case that you want to do it regular but your lender only facilitates lump sums, again, what you might do is you might look at setting up an investment account, kind of a low, medium risk investment account for those three or four years that you're in a fixed rate and then take that money and overpay it against the mortgage.