Most of us dream of the day when we own our home outright. Here are smart yet simple strategies that can help you pay off your mortgage faster, for less cost.
Make your regular mortgage payments more frequently.
Save interest by switching from a monthly to a bi-weekly or weekly payment. This will have the effect of making an extra monthly payment every year, without even noticing it.
Choose the shortest amortization period and the largest payment amount you can afford.
Slightly higher payments will quickly become a routine budget item. The chart below shows that paying $71.54 more in monthly payments for a mortgage of $100,000 at 6.25%¹ interest rate, would produce savings of $22,115.48 in interest.
Amortization Term
Monthly Payment of Principal and Interest
Total Interest Paid Over Amortization Period²
25 year
$654.74
$96,423.21
20 year
$726.28
$74,307.73
Take advantage of Scotiabank's 15% + 15%® prepayment privileges:
Increase your regular payment amount. Once a year you can increase your payments by up to 15% of the scheduled monthly payment amount.
Put any extra money, such as a tax refund, into your mortgage. You can choose to repay up to 15% of the original principal amount of your mortgage at any time during each year of the term.
You can also Match a Payment® - by doubling your current mortgage payment of principal and interest, as well as taxes if applicable, on any regular payment date, you can pay down your mortgage principal even faster, with no fee or penalty.
Keep your payments the same.
When you renew, your principal balance is probably less and your renewal may indicate a lower payment amount, if that is the case, then increase the payment to what you were paying before. This extra will be applied directly to your principal amount helping you pay off your mortgage faster.
¹ Interest is compounded semi-annually not in advance
² Calculations are approximate and are based on the interest rate being constant throughout the entire amortization period, and regularly scheduled payments being applied to the mortgage. Applicable to certain products only.
