Mortgage Calculators: What Kinds Are There?

Everyone tells you that using a mortgage calculator is really easy. What isn’t so easy is finding your way round all the different types of mortgage calculator that you can find on the Internet.

The different types of mortgage calculator range from the very simple to the much more complex.
• The simplest type of mortgage calculator just enables you to enter your personal information and find out how much you can borrow.
• Some sites offer the standard mortgage calculator, with the additional benefit that you can specify the interest rate for which you want the repayment calculated. This is particularly useful if you are interested in a variable rate mortgage. You can adjust the interest rate as many times as you like, and see how different rates will affect your repayments.
• There are some mortgage calculators that will allow you to factor in other housing costs. When you are working out whether you can afford a particular level of payments, it’s easy to forget to add in costs like survey fees, stamp duty, insurance and council tax. Adding these to the mix will give you a much more realistic idea of what you can actually afford.
• One bank even provides a mortgage calculator that works out the total cost of moving home! With this tool you can enter all your expenses including removal and storage.
• At least one lender provides an offset mortgage calculator. This is quite complex and is packed with charts and figures. The idea of this kind of calculator is to show you how you would benefit by combining your mortgage with your bank account – either your current account or your savings account.
• A few sites provide an endowment mortgage calculator. With this, you enter the details of your endowment policy, and it will predict whether your endowment will grow sufficiently to pay off your mortgage.

So, whatever you need, there is a mortgage calculator to suit you! There is really no need to feel nervous about using the more complex ones. They tell you what to do step by step and really make it as simple as possible for you.

And you get the big benefit of going into the biggest transaction of your life with your eyes wide open.

Sean Horton is a Director of Enhanced Wealth Limited who are a specialist mortgage broker with an online mortgage calculator