See your mortgage in Monzo 🏠 [Mortgage Referrals pilot live 🚀]

[Alexxxxx (>50 categories pls)]

@EdSB

Out of interest, would you know this (interest rate, and deal end date) off the top of your head? (Maybe to the nearest month?)

I think that would be the entire point of wanting to put it in Monzo, so it is easily accessible even if difficult to remember.

I have the same issue with a zero interest balance transfer card - I would love to be able to see the end date for the period right there in connected accounts as it isn’t even openly visible in the company’s own app. I do have a note in a ‘money’ spreadsheet I have but it would be much nicer to have in Monzo.

[HB (Harry)]

@Addzy

My only complaint/gripe is one that’s been listed numerous times above. Halifax last updated the report 42 days ago according to you, in which time we’ve made 2 payments that are not accounted for, this puts it so far out of whack it’s not useful. The idea stated above to choose what direct debit is your mortgage payment and use that to bring the payment to the right place seems like a very logical and doable solution, assuming you pay the mortgage from your Monzo account.

@Peter_G

• If you’re paying your mortgage from Monzo it’d be great to have a way to link the payment out and the mortgage card so it updates automagically (and much more quickly!)

Thanks for all the great conversations so far everyone - it has been super interesting to see feedback on parts of the experience that we were/weren’t expecting! As you can tell, we’ve been trying to make connecting as easy as possible whilst also managing some constraints with the data and refresh period!

For folks who have talked about wanting to see more recent payments (and overpayments) reflected in their mortgage balance - I’d love to hear a little more about your rationale, is it:

• Feel like the mortgage balance is accurate
• Be able to build the “net worth view” - e.g. 1 month of mortgage payments have gone out, so my current account balance is reduced
• Have the information to hand to make some decision
• Something else?

What I’m grappling with is that taking a mortgage payment feed item and taking it off your mortgage balance is unlikely to show the correct balance when you consider that interest gets added by lenders at different times. Is it better to be correct at a point in time in the past automatically or closer (but wrong) to the current balance?

[Peter_G]

@EdSB

Out of interest, would you know this (interest rate, and deal end date) off the top of your head?

I know the interest rate. I know the end date of my fixed term deal, and know roughly how many years I’ve got to run on the full thing.

That said, it’s a pretty simple thing to log onto online banking or search any emails to find the exact details.

[Peter_G]

@HB

For folks who have talked about wanting to see more recent payments (and overpayments) reflected in their mortgage balance - I’d love to hear a little more about your rationale

This comes down to a few things for me:

• I want Monzo to be the one place where I can have an overview of my assets and liabilities. That means that I’d like the most up to date information.
• Like you say, if there’s a (significant) lag then there’s some missing money for a while (money out but not yet credited to the mortgage account).
• Monzo is at its best when it joins things up or makes life easy. Intuitively, it feels strange that you’ve got both sides of the coin but (stretching the metaphor) they’re not glued together.

@HB

Is it better to be correct at a point in time in the past automatically or closer (but wrong) to the current balance?

I’m not sure this is an either/or question.

Imagine a feed that’s split with real payment and mortgage balance details at the bottom.

Then imagine at the top a section that’s heavily caveated with “Monzo’s best guesstimate based on current account payments to your mortgage provider”.

That would both spark joy / give the Monzo magic - and let customers know what’s certain and what isn’t.

[HB (Harry)]

This is certainly a challenge but I think there’s a couple of ways you could manage this:

• Identify payments or tell us if you’ve overpaid in the preceding 12 months
• Keep a running total of payments to date and highlight where this stands
• Make it clear when they’re getting close and if in doubt to check their mortgage terms

As I understand it - 10% of the mortgage balance in a 12 month period (either calendar, or normally anniversary of start date) is the default limit for Early Repayment Charges in the UK if the product has them. The thing that changes is the % fee charged when over the limit itself.

Given that the average mortgage in the UK is ~£200,000 then the £20k overpayment limit (extra) per year is not going to constraint many folks, provided that there’s education and signposting?

[caribo]

My main objective would be to be able to forecast my mortgage end date, something that I do in a spreadsheet currently. To do this I take into account one off overpayments, and regular monthly overpayments. Let’s say my required mortgage payments are £500 per month, but I regularly pay £800 and then make an annual overpayment of £5k to reduce the mortgage term.

It looks like TU provide the initial amount borrowed, monthly balance, and the £500 required payment; so what is missing is the actual monthly payment £800 and the annual lump sum payment of £5k… even with this information the calculations will be close approximations at best due to differing dates that interest is applied, rounding etc etc… but will be good enough to work with…

The other data point that is not present is the fixed term end date. It would be great to be able to add this to each mortgage if wanted so that Monzo can include this on charts and provide a countdown / reminders to fix terms coming to an end. A countdown to mortgage completion would be nice too although I have no idea how best to incorporate into the UI

[dinosm]

@EdSB

Out of interest, would you know this (interest rate, and deal end date) off the top of your head?

Yep, I know the interest rate (it’s in the Nationwide app easy to see on the mortgage screen anyway if I forget it) and the end date. It might be trickier to track in future - right now it’s easy as it’s our first deal, so I know when we moved in (hence when the mortgage started) and that it’s a 5-year deal.

@HB

Is it better to be correct at a point in time in the past automatically or closer (but wrong) to the current balance?

I think for me personally it wouldn’t make a difference, as the amount of overpayments we make and the interest charged per month are not far off from each other. So, if you show me a snapshot at time A, it could show that I’ve overpaid with no interest charged yet, but at time B the interest would show but the current/next overpayment would not, so either way I think the figure you’d show would be equally off from reality (whether plus or minus).

Bearing in mind you have to pull this from the credit agency as there is no API for it, I will expect the mortgage figure to be a guide - unless you have some sort of manual input for interest rate and overpayments and you calculate it correctly to show the correct value every day.

[j06 (Jamie)]

@HB

Given that the average mortgage in the UK is ~£200,000 then the £20k overpayment limit (extra) per year is not going to constraint many folks, provided that there’s education and signposting?

Sure, £200,000 at full term, but the ERC comes within easy trigger when you have less than, say, a decade to run on the mortgage.

[dinosm]

@j06

the ERC comes within easy trigger when you have less than, say, a decade to run on the mortgage.

Nationwide’s overpayment limit is 10% of the original loan amount, so no matter how much balance you have left you can overpay up to 10% of the original amount every year (unless I understand it completely wrong).

[caribo]

I don’t know about others but my mortgage allow overpayments of up to 10% of the initial sum borrowed per annum, not 10% of the mortgage balance, so the overpayment limit remains static throughout the term. In your example £20k pa throughout… each lump sum overpayment triggers a recalculation of the minimum monthly mortgage payment which means that leaving regular monthly payments at the same level creates a monthly overpayment too… which needs to be managed carefully to ensure that you remain within the limits…

[j06 (Jamie)]

@dinosm

Nationwide’s overpayment limit is 10% of the original loan amount

@caribo

I don’t know about others but my mortgage allow overpayments of up to 10% of the initial sum borrowed

Which is great, but my HSBC mortgage has the ability (in the terms) to change the limit after the fixed rate period ends, whilst the ERC period is still in force.

All of which proves the point that care is needed in any service which makes it frictionless to overpay a mortgage.

[dinosm]

@caribo

each lump sum overpayment triggers a recalculation of the minimum monthly mortgage payment which means that leaving regular monthly payments at the same level creates a monthly overpayment too

Nationwide gives you the option to either lower the monthly payment (which auto-adjusts the DD) or to reduce the term of the mortgage, with every overpayment.

[caribo]

@j06

All of which proves the point that care is needed in any service which makes it frictionless to overpay a mortgage.

yes, agreed… it can be a minefield if you are not clued up.

just out of curiosity does your early redemption charge period extend beyond the term of your fixed rate deal? as that’s another complication when it comes to calculating how much to over pay

[richycran (Rich)]

@HB

For folks who have talked about wanting to see more recent payments (and overpayments) reflected in their mortgage balance - I’d love to hear a little more about your rationale

I was a first time buyer last year and my mortgage is the biggest amount of credit I’ll ever see myself incurring. I’m very much interested in what action I have taken, or could take in future, to reduce the balance and any interest charges.

I’ve been making reasonable (but not massive) overpayments each month but I have no idea how much this has saved me in potential future interest and a shortening of the mortgage term (all things being equal).

Going forward, I don’t know what impact reducing my overpayments or increasing them will have (ie. Is the benefit so small I’d be better doing something else?).

I would, somehow, absolutely love to see both historical impact of overpayments (‘you have overpaid £x which has caused you mortgage term to decrease by y months and have saved £z interest), and something where you have the ability to model future overpayments e.g. a slider with [£25] increments which adjusts the gradient on a graph (current vs revised mortgage term) and quantifies the impact.

Once I did something similar with my student loan and it really helped me understand the impact of making additional payments over and above the salary deduction (but within my means) and I paid it off so much faster.

May wel be in the ‘too hard box’ but would love to see this!

[j06 (Jamie)]

Without knowing any specific numbers/rates, you can be safe in the knowledge that any overpayments will save you A LOT of money over the whole term (making sure you don’t incur any extra charges!)

I don’t make overpayments currently as I’m still doing the house up, but as a rule I always ensure I ‘overpay’ the amount of the mortgage arrangement charge at the start of the term, so I’m not accruing interest on it.

[DaveJ (Dave)]

Your mortgage lender will generally have a tool available which you can plug all the figures info.

MSE has a decent overpayment tool which you can also get it to check to see if you’re better off overpaying or saving that money instead

[richycran (Rich)]

@DaveJ

MSE has a decent overpayment tool which you can also get it to check to see if you’re better off overpaying or saving that money instead

EXACTLY this. But in-app

And Monzo’d. With a slidey thing.

[Peter_G]

Here’s a small ask: can I change the name of my mortgage provider (and other connected accounts)?

Why?

• Because Monzo is picking up a very long form of the provider name.
• For connected accounts I have multiple accounts with some banks. I can’t distinguish between them!
• I’d like to put the interest rate or other useful info in the name (it’s a hack but a useful one).

[HB (Harry)]

I’ll answer this for the mortgages part (although a similar model we’re not looking at the other connected accounts with our work at the moment!)

Shorter term: We’ve got “short names” and logos for ~ 22 lenders which popped up during our staff testing phase - which we manually categorised once we saw how the lender names were defined in the TransUnion API.

We’ll likely do another batch of the new lenders folks have connected in Labs to give it some extra polish!

Longer term: All the feedback on the Community (and via the app) has been super helpful - it will help us to think about the best way to personalise things visually as well as the data!

As you can imagine, we’d like to try to align as much of this “top level” data with the great progress being made over at App Evolution!

[Ian-T-Price]

Easy enough to access but the figures are wrong.

I have two mortgages and

• the monthly payments are on the wrong accounts
• the total amount of mortgage is also reversed
• which means the calculated paid back amounts and percentages are a work of fiction

I read in the comments that the data is from TransUnion and not from the Mortgage provider.
So a case of GIGO, Garbage In, Garbage out.

And these people are giving out ratings on my worthiness…