3 Tips to Pay Off Your Santa Cruz Home Mortgage Early

If you own a Santa Cruz home, you're probably trying to figure out how you can save money. One of the best ways to add a bit of cash back into your pocket is create a budget, and work on paying off your mortgage early. With a little research and a lot of focus, you can be mortgage free.

1.  Make Additional Monthly Payments

One of the easiest ways to pay off your home mortgage is to simply make extra payments towards your principal balance. This helps decrease interest over the years, which helps you pay off your mortgage loan at a faster rate. You could pay as little as $100 extra a month and make a huge difference in the amount of interest you'll pay over the life of your loan.  Use a mortgage calculator to check out figures and help you get an idea of how much you could save over the years.

When you make principal only payments, be sure to write a separate check and write "Principal Pre-payment Only" and your account number in the memo area of the check. Also enclose a letter instructing the mortgage company to apply this to pay down your principal balance.  If you don't do this, the bank may apply it to your next mortgage payment instead of just to your principal.

2.  Pay Bi-Weekly

Another way to pay off your Santa Cruz home mortgage early is to pay twice a month, or bi-weekly. Paying bi-weekly could potentially subtract up to nine years off your loan. You simply make two smaller payments, instead of one big one. Therefore, you save a significant amount of money in interest charges.

However, if your loan company requires that you pay a fee to pay bi-weekly, or if they require that you switch plans whereby you are required to make a bi-monthly payment, don't do it. 

Instead, stick with your current monthly payment schedule and simply pay more on your principal each month as described above.  This way you'll still save a significant amount of interest, but you won't be locked in to making bi-weekly payments.  If you run into a rough patch, you can go back to paying your normal monthly amount.  This keeps your options open, rather than being locked in if you converted to the bi-weekly payment plan.

3.  Refinance Your Loan

When you refinance, the goal is usually to get a lower mortgage payment. But if you want to pay off your mortgage early, you could refinance, get a lower interest rate, but continue to make the same payments you were initially paying on your previous loan. This would allow you to pay more on your interest charges, and ultimately shorten the life of your loan.

When trying to pay off your Santa Cruz home mortgage early, you have several options. Just make sure to thoroughly research all the available plans of action until you find the one that's right for you.

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LINKS:

Mortgage calculator

Bi-weekly

Refinance