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Currently on the market, there are many varieties of mortgage loans available. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell which mortgage loan is suitable and applicable to you.

I will discuss the 3 main types of mortgage loans on the market. Most banks and lenders offer mortgage loans that belong to one of these categories.

1. Fixed Mortgage Loan

Fixed mortgage loans are the most popular and common among the three types of mortgage loan.

You take out a mortgage loan with a lender and you pay a certain repayment amount for a fixed period of time. Most people usually choose 30 year fixed mortgage loans as the monthly repayment amounts are low and the interest rates usually evens out in a 30 year period.

One disadvantage of 30 year fixed mortgage loan is you have to repay more for your mortgage loan in total compared to someone who takes up a 15 or 5 year loan.

There are also shorter time periods such as 5 year, 10 or 15 years fixed mortgage loans. It allows people who want to pay off their house in a shorter period of time. Of course, you have to make sure you have the financial capability to repay higher monthly repayments.

There is also another sub-category of mortgage loan called adjustable rate mortgage loan or ARM. Usually, you will start off with a lower interest rate compared to a 30 year fixed mortgage loan. So you ended up paying less each month for your mortgage repayment.

However take note that ARM is highly fluctuating depending on interest rates. In other words, you pay less for monthly repayment when interest is low and pay more when interest rates is high.

2. Convertible Loans

Convertible loans are becoming more popular as it allows people to keep their mortgage loan options open allowing for more flexibility.

If you find interest rates are too high, you can convert to a fixed rate mortgage loan. If interest rates are low, you can also convert to ARM based mortgage loans.

There are too many varieties of convertible loans under this category. However I list one type of convertible loans I dealt with.

Balloon Loan

A balloon loan is a fixed rate convertible loan. Usually, you start off by repaying small monthly repayments for a period of years, usually 5 or 7 years. At the end of that period, you will need to repay the loan in one lump sum.

So whats the advantage of a balloon loan? It is mostly used by investors or property dealers who are looking to sell the house in a short period of time. They can take advantage of low interest rates without locking their money on a house. Since they will have a large sum of money when they sell the house, it will not be a problem to return the lump sum.

3. Special mortgage loans

These are mortgage loans that are only being offered to a group of people. For example the FHA mortgage loans are only available for first time home buyers or people with bad credit.

Another one is the veteran affairs mortgage loan. They are only offered to widows of the US armed forces.

The best way to know whether you qualify or is suitable for a mortgage loan is to speak to a professional mortgage consultant before you decide to take up any mortgage offer

With the raging hot real estate market of the last five years, mortgages have evolved wide spread options. The different home loans can be confusing, so lets look at the basic repayment options.

Repaying Your Mortgage Home Loans The Basics

Jumbo loans, variable rates, fixed, interest only the variety of mortgage home loans seems almost endless. One way to bring a little clarity to the situation is to look at the basic issue of how you have to repay the loan. Doing so can give you a better idea of what it is going to honestly cost you and whether you can realistically meet the obligation.

The traditional and most common mortgage repayment is one that combines capital and interest over time. The most basic of these loans has been the 30-year repayment mortgage with a fixed interest rate. You typically make a payment each month with part of the payment reducing the principal on the loan and the rest going to interest. At the outset of the loan, the amount applied to the principal debt is usually very small. It will grow over time as the years pass.

A variety of mortgage options have come into existence that focus on interest payments. Although they have a variety of names, the basic game is the exclusion of principal from the repayment process. When you make monthly payments, the total is applied only to the interest on the loan. Payments are never applied to the principal. The advantage of these loans is you can often qualify for a slightly larger loan, and your monthly payment is significantly reduced. Keep in mind, however, that this loan only works in the long run if the home appreciates significantly. If it doesnt, you arent going to create much wealth.

A fairly common, but risky proposition, is a balloon loan. A balloon loan combines the interest only option mentioned in the previous paragraph with a principal call. In practical terms, you are given a loan for a fixed period of five years for example. During the five-year period, you make interest only monthly payments. At the end of the five-year period, however, the loan is called and the full amount is due. The way to get around this call is to sell or refinance the home as the loan comes due. The potential problem, however, is the loan may not have appreciated. If it hasnt, you could be stuck with a bad deal or even lose the property.

At the end of the day, figuring out the modern mortgage home loans isnt that confusing. The key is simply to ascertain what you have to pay back, how it will be applied to the loan and for what period of years.

Personal Finance. Student Loans Debts Do Not Go On Your Credit Record.

Every time you apply for credit, for example a credit card or a loan, the lender will request to see your credit history from a credit reference agency. The information they hold is so detailed that there’s really no need for us to fill out that long application form, because within a fraction of a second they can see all they need to know from Experian, Equifax or Callcredit, the three main credit reference agencies. You would be very surprised to see just how much they know about you.

Banks, building societies and other financial institutions providing credit have been passing on details of your financial transactions to the credit agencies. Every time you apply for a credit card, every time you miss a mortgage repayment it gets noted. They know whether you pay the minimum or the balance each month, they even know details of your credit limit on each credit card. They also look to public records, the voters’ roll and the public register of court actions because that is where all county court judgements are listed. It all happens automatically, and when your credit history is requested, the computer will provide a statistical analysis of your financial habits and provide an assessment of your suitability. It enables, the industry argues, lenders to make an accurate judgement about whether they should lend you money or not.

However, there is one piece of financial information that the credit agencies are not allowed to access, and that’s the student loans. Despite the industry’s remonstrations to the government, nothing has changed, and they are not allowed to access the information. The reason? Student loans constitute a debt to the taxpayer, they were not funded by commercial business.

Before September 1998, the student loan system worked like this: once graduates were working and earning the national average, which was 15,000 at the time, they had to repay their loan on a monthly basis by direct debit. 59,000 of those pre-1998 graduates still haven’t started repaying their loan, and each has on average a debt of 2,750.

In September 1998, the student loan system changed, and the system remains the same to this day. Now, repayments are taken directly at source, straight from the salary in the same way as national insurance and income tax. This method has been a lot more successful.

The lending industry is not happy about the student loan situation, their main argument being that they need to know, when considering an application for credit, if the applicant has extra financial responsibilities. The introduction of top-up fees resulted in increasingly large student debts, and as the post-1998 loans have to be paid off at a rate of 9% of the graduate’s income once it has reached 15,000, it is a large portion of income to lose.

The Association Consumer Credit Counselling Service made the following statement: Knowing whether a young person has a student loan and whether it is being paid back, is useful. So they are in agreement with the lenders.

The Citizens Advice Bureau is also keen to have the information made public, because they feel that graduates could be taking on too much debt, and if lenders could see their student loans, they would ensure that graduates are not given the ability to borrow beyond their means.

However, the Department for Education and Skills is showing no signs of wavering on its decision to keep individuals’ debts to the Student Loan Company private.

For the foreseeable future the situation will remain the same and student loans information will be inaccessible to the credit industry.

Personal Finance. Student Loans Debts Do Not Go On Your Credit Record.

Every time you apply for credit, for example a credit card or a loan, the lender will request to see your credit history from a credit reference agency. The information they hold is so detailed that there’s really no need for us to fill out that long application form, because within a fraction of a second they can see all they need to know from Experian, Equifax or Callcredit, the three main credit reference agencies. You would be very surprised to see just how much they know about you.

Banks, building societies and other financial institutions providing credit have been passing on details of your financial transactions to the credit agencies. Every time you apply for a credit card, every time you miss a mortgage repayment it gets noted. They know whether you pay the minimum or the balance each month, they even know details of your credit limit on each credit card. They also look to public records, the voters’ roll and the public register of court actions because that is where all county court judgements are listed. It all happens automatically, and when your credit history is requested, the computer will provide a statistical analysis of your financial habits and provide an assessment of your suitability. It enables, the industry argues, lenders to make an accurate judgement about whether they should lend you money or not.

However, there is one piece of financial information that the credit agencies are not allowed to access, and that’s the student loans. Despite the industry’s remonstrations to the government, nothing has changed, and they are not allowed to access the information. The reason? Student loans constitute a debt to the taxpayer, they were not funded by commercial business.

Before September 1998, the student loan system worked like this: once graduates were working and earning the national average, which was 15,000 at the time, they had to repay their loan on a monthly basis by direct debit. 59,000 of those pre-1998 graduates still haven’t started repaying their loan, and each has on average a debt of 2,750.

In September 1998, the student loan system changed, and the system remains the same to this day. Now, repayments are taken directly at source, straight from the salary in the same way as national insurance and income tax. This method has been a lot more successful.

The lending industry is not happy about the student loan situation, their main argument being that they need to know, when considering an application for credit, if the applicant has extra financial responsibilities. The introduction of top-up fees resulted in increasingly large student debts, and as the post-1998 loans have to be paid off at a rate of 9% of the graduate’s income once it has reached 15,000, it is a large portion of income to lose.

The Association Consumer Credit Counselling Service made the following statement: Knowing whether a young person has a student loan and whether it is being paid back, is useful. So they are in agreement with the lenders.

The Citizens Advice Bureau is also keen to have the information made public, because they feel that graduates could be taking on too much debt, and if lenders could see their student loans, they would ensure that graduates are not given the ability to borrow beyond their means.

However, the Department for Education and Skills is showing no signs of wavering on its decision to keep individuals’ debts to the Student Loan Company private.

For the foreseeable future the situation will remain the same and student loans information will be inaccessible to the credit industry.

Getting rid of the mortgage early is something that many home owners in the UK aspire to achieve. Being free of the principal financial debt in most people’s lives at the earliest stage possible offers financial security and peace of mind for later on in life. Paying off the mortgage early is no pipe dream though. In 2003, the average age of outright home ownership was 56, by 2004 the average age had fallen dramatically to just 48!

How home owners pay off their mortgages early

The secret to paying your mortgage off early lies in choosing the right type of home loan, and this is where flexible mortgage loans and offset mortgage loans step in.

Flexible mortgage loans, as their name suggests, offer flexible mortgage repayment terms where overpayment of mortgage is allowed by the home owner without incurring a penalty. Some flexible mortgage loans allow overpayment of a limited amount, such as 10% of the mortgage value, while other flexible home mortgage loans cater for unlimited overpayment by the home owner.

The advantage of flexible home mortgage loans is that as well as allowing you to overpay, you can also underpay, so taking a ‘payment holiday’ if finances become a little thin. Underpayment is of course subject to the terms of the mortgage, and will normally only be allowed if it amounts to less than the funds that have been overpaid.

Overpayment via flexible home mortgage loans means that you get to reduce your mortgage capital as well as pay off interest accrued on the capital each month. For each successive month that you make an overpayment the amount of interest paid on the overall mortgage is therefore reduced. An overpayment of just 65 on an 80,000 mortgage with the interest rate at 6.0%, will see mortgage loans paid off 5 years early, amounting to a total saving of some 15,000.

Offset home mortgage loans

Offset home mortgage loans were unveiled to the home owner in 1998, and have gained a great deal of respect from home owners since that time. Offset mortgage loans help to pay off a mortgage early by using what is known as a ’sweeper’ system. Providing that the home owner has their current and/or savings account with the mortgage loans provider, their available balance is ’swept’ across to their mortgage account each day to offset/reduce the amount of mortgage capital subjected to interest.

To illustrate the advantages of offset mortgage loans, take a mortgage of 100,000 and a balance of 10,000 in your current account and/or savings account. Instead of the interest rate being applied to the 100,000 every day or every month, the interest rate would be applied to your mortgage balance less the balance in your current account / savings account. This means that interest would only be applied to 90,000 of your mortgage, effectively making 10% of your mortgage interest-free!

Reverse mortgages are becoming extremely popular with seniors in California since the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) created one of the first.

A California reverse home mortgage allows older Americans to supplement social security, meet unexpected medical expenses, make home improvements, and more.

A reverse mortgage allows the homeowner to convert a portion of the home equity into cash. Unlike a traditional home equity loan (HELOC) or second mortgage, repayment is not required until the borrower no longer uses the home as a principal residence.

To be eligible the borrower must be at least 62 years old; own the home and have a low mortgage balance that can be paid off at closing with proceeds from the California reverse mortgage loan, and must live in the home.
With a traditional second mortgage loan, or a California home equity line of credit (HELOC), there must be sufficient income versus debt ratio to qualify for the loan, and monthly mortgage payments are required.

The California reverse mortgage loan is different in that it pays the homeowner, and is available regardless of current income.

The reverse mortgage loan amount depends on borrower’s age, current interest rate, other loan fees, and the appraisal value.

The loan is not repayable as long as one of the borrowers continues to live in the house and keeps the taxes and insurance current.

If the home is sold or no longer used as a primary residence, the homeowner or the estate repays the reverse mortgage, plus interest and other fees, to the reverse mortgage lender.

The remaining home equity belongs to homeowner or heirs. No other assets will be affected by a California reverse mortgage loan and the debt will never be passed along to the estate or heirs.

For more information on a California reverse home mortgage loan call Goldmedalmortgage.com at 866 398 4664 or go to