This might not work in reality, but what would be super cool would be a button to hit that knows the sort code, account number and reference for the mortgage account and lets me make a one off or recurring overpayment. With some funky examples on how it might reduce term.
Similarly for connected credit cards (where this should be much easier)!
One thing that I think is missing (from connected accounts and mortgages) is somewhere we can enter the interest rate ourselves, and see the remaining promotional / fixed term period (e.g. my mortgage is fixed for a bit then goes to SVR, similarly one of my connected cards is 0% balance transfer for a fixed period - would be fab to be able to see both of those in Monzo and be alerted in very good time before they expire!)
Maybe wishful thinking, but I would like Monzo to Identify possible mortgage repayments from my account feeds, let me select the relevant one and then use that to understand my repayment history. Hopefully this would yield enough data to understand if I am overpaying and to calculate the amount of interest I am paying and hence the interest rateā¦
You canāt make it too easy, or there will be people who decide to go allāin on overpayments (instead of savings) and who then hit the early redemption charge, which is very, very expensive.
Was thinking about this last night, itād be good (eventually) to be able to connect dormant mortgage accounts up, and have the broader concept of a āhouseā in Monzo. So I could say these 5 mortgages over the last 10 years related to this one house, and get some good graphs about how that capital changed etc. etc.
Out of interest, would you know this (interest rate, and deal end date) off the top of your head? (Maybe to the nearest month?) If not, do you think youād make the effort to go and find this information so you can tell Monzo about it?
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 isnāt even openly visible in the companyās own app. I do have a note in a āmoneyā spreadsheet I have but it would be much nicer to have in Monzo.
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/werenāt expecting! As you can tell, weāve 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 - Iād love to hear a little more about your rationale, is it:
Feel like the mortgage balance is accurate
Be able to build the ānet worth viewā - 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 Iām 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?
I want Monzo to be the one place where I can have an overview of my assets and liabilities. That means that Iād like the most up to date information.
Like you say, if thereās a (significant) lag then thereās 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 youāve got both sides of the coin but (stretching the metaphor) theyāre not glued together.
Iām not sure this is an either/or question.
Imagine a feed thatās split with real payment and mortgage balance details at the bottom.
Then imagine at the top a section thatās heavily caveated with āMonzoās best guesstimate based on current account payments to your mortgage providerā.
That would both spark joy / give the Monzo magic - and let customers know whatās certain and what isnāt.
This is certainly a challenge but I think thereās a couple of ways you could manage this:
Identify payments or tell us if youāve overpaid in the preceding 12 months
Keep a running total of payments to date and highlight where this stands
Make it clear when theyāre 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 ~Ā£200,000 then the Ā£20k overpayment limit (extra) per year is not going to constraint many folks, provided that thereās education and signposting?
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. Letās say my required mortgage payments are Ā£500 per month, but I regularly pay Ā£800 and then make an annual overpayment of Ā£5k to reduce the mortgage term.
It looks like TU provide the initial amount borrowed, monthly balance, and the Ā£500 required payment; so what is missing is the actual monthly payment Ā£800 and the annual lump sum payment of Ā£5kā¦ even with this information the calculations will be close approximations at best due to differing dates that interest is applied, rounding etc etcā¦ but will be good enough to work withā¦
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
Yep, I know the interest rate (itās 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 itās easy as itās our first deal, so I know when we moved in (hence when the mortgage started) and that itās a 5-year deal.
I think for me personally it wouldnāt 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 Iāve 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 youād 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.
although I have no idea how best to incorporate into the UI