Review your mortgage
Every year your lender must send you a statement and this is a good opportunity to check your mortgage and consider any changes.
You should also review your mortgage whenever the period of a special deal - for example, a fixed or discounted interest rate - comes to an end.
Your annual statement
Use your annual statement to check that your mortgage details are as you would expect them to be. The statement will include:
• the date and amount of payments you have made during the year compared to those that were due, including payments for any tied products that you took out through the lender (for example, buildings insurance);
• the amount of interest you have been charged over the year;
• the balance of the loan still owed at the statement date;
• the term remaining on the mortgage;
• the cost of paying off the mortgage including any early repayment charges; and
• where early repayment charges apply, the date that they will stop.
If you have a repayment mortgage, the balance shown on your statement should get smaller over the years. If you have an interest-only loan, the balance should stay the same, unless you choose to make some early capital repayment.
If you have an interest-only mortgage (or part of your loan is on that basis), the statement should either give details of any savings scheme you have taken out through the lender or warn you that you should have some arrangement in place for repaying the mortgage at the end of its term.
Check that it is on track to do this.
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