Notices

How an Offset mortgage works

An Offset mortgage allows you to reduce your monthly mortgage payments or reduce the term of your mortgage, saving you money in interest payments. Learn more about an Offset mortgage.

The mortgage will be secured on your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

An Offset mortgage works in a similar way to a standard mortgage. However, it has an additional feature known as an Offset Saver savings account. This savings account is linked to the mortgage. The amount of money in the Offset Saver savings account is deducted from the mortgage on which interest is charged.

You can choose to offset your savings to either reduce your monthly payments or reduce the balance of your mortgage.

Our simple to use Offset mortgage calculator can help you find out how you savings can reduce your mortgage balance or monthly mortgage payments.

 

How offsetting works

If you borrowed £200,000 and held £40,000 in our Offset Saver account, we will only charge you the interest due on £160,000. By making consistent monthly payments, you can pay off your mortgage faster.

As another option, you can choose to take advantage of reduced monthly payments. This won’t pay off your mortgage any quicker, but will make your monthly mortgage payments lower.

You have the option to overpay your mortgage regularly each month or make occasional additional payments. You can then use this extra money to reduce the amount of your future payments.

You won’t earn interest on the Offset Saver account while it's linked to the mortgage.


offset mortgage table

Offset mortgage options

We have two offset mortgage options, allowing you to either:

  • reduce the balance of your mortgage or
  • reduce your monthly mortgage payments


Option 1 - Balance reduction (only available for repayment mortgages)

With this option, your offset savings help you to pay your mortgage off sooner. Offsetting does not affect your monthly mortgage payments. However, it does assist in saving on interest and paying off a larger portion of your mortgage each month. Your mortgage balance should reduce faster, and you may be able to pay your mortgage off early.

In this example, the mortgage will be repaid nine years earlier, saving you 113 payments of £1,269. In total that is £143,442 less to repay. Plus, unlike a regular savings account, you pay no tax on the money held in an offset account. The future tax treatment of offset savings accounts may vary.

Mortgage amount

£200,000

Offset Saver account

£40,000

Mortgage rate

6.54%

Term

30 years

Payment

£1,269.40

 

Repaid early after 21 years!


Option 2 - Payment reduction

This option allows you to benefit from lower monthly mortgage payments, but you won’t pay off your mortgage any faster. Interest saved each month will be used to reduce the amount of your next month’s mortgage payment. The more savings you offset, the lower your monthly payment will be.

Using your savings to lower monthly payments won't decrease your mortgage balance or remaining mortgage term faster than if you were on a traditional mortgage.

Payment reduction summary

 

With an Offset Saver account

Without an Offset Saver account

Mortgage amount

£200,000

£200,000

Offset Saver amount

£40,000 (20%)

£0

Mortgage rate

6.54%

6.54%

Term

30 years (Max 40 years)

30 years (Max 40 years)

Payment

£1,051.40

£1,269.40

Monthly saving

£218.00

 

Repaid after

30 years

30 years


Try our Offset mortgage calculator which will show you the difference between balance reduction or payment reduction to your overall mortgage when you offset your savings with our offset mortgage.

The above diagrams use interest rates which are for illustrative purposes only.

 

Frequently asked questions

You can choose to change between term reduction and payment reduction at any time provided this is no more than once a calendar month. Changes requested up to the 25th of a month take effect the following month; changes requested after this take effect a month later.
You can take money out of your Offset Saver account at any time, subject to keeping a minimum balance of £100. Of course the money taken out will no longer offset your outstanding mortgage. Only the money held in the account will count to reduce interest payable for the mortgage.
Whether you choose to reduce your term or reduce your monthly payments, you can also make lump sum repayments and / or regular monthly overpayments to reduce the mortgage balance. There is no limit on the amount you can pay off in any one year.
Yes, with our prior agreement you can underpay or take payment holidays equal to the value of overpayments you have built up earlier in the mortgage term.

View our full list of FAQs for more information here.


Representative example

A mortgage of £189,800.00 payable over 9 years initially on a discounted variable rate for 2 years at 1.90% below our variable Managed Flexi Mortgage Rate and then on our variable Managed Flexi Mortgage Rate, currently 8.54% would require 23 monthly payments of £2,339.23 and 85 monthly payments of £2,483.83 plus one initial interest payment of £1,004.20.

The total amount payable would be £267,206.04 made up of the loan amount plus interest of £76,132.04, an Application Fee of £175, a Product Fee of £999 and a Mortgage Exit Fee of £100.

The overall cost for comparison is 8.3% APRC representative.

Offset mortgage brochure

Find out more about our Offset mortgage and how it can work for you.

Do you need our help?

If you have questions or need our help please contact our friendly New Business Team.