NINE WAYS ON HOW TO REDUCE YOUR MORTGAGE QUICKER

1. Pay more frequently than monthly - with fortnightly repayments you will actually be making one additional repayment a year. However, for this to be effective it is important that you ask your lender to halve your monthly repayments rather than recalculating them
2. Make extra repayments above the minimum - even $80 a month on a $200,000 loan at 8.77% will save you close to 5 years off your loan term
3. Extra money like inheritance, a good tax return, a bonus from work should all be credited into your home loan. If you have a redraw facility you will still have access to these extra repayments when needed
4. Make your first repayment at settlement
5. If borrowing more than $250,000 consider a 100% offset feature
6. Salary crediting: you can use a credit card with a good interest free period to pay for your regular monthly living expenses and at the end of the month have the card 'swiped' (or paid off) against the home loan
7. When interest rates fall ask your lender to leave your repayments as is
8. Do a regular stocktake on your home loan. A loan may start off as good but have its competitiveness eroded by increased fees or rates, or by the introduction of better priced products on the market
9. Interest repayments on an owner occupied home loan are not tax-deductible, which means it makes better sense to give priority to paying off your owner occupied home loan quickly instead of directing your extra funds towards paying off investment loans or having your funds sit in low interest-bearing deposit accounts (where any interest received will also be taxed)