How good would it have been had there been no obligation to repay
loan or mortgage? This is what most people think when required to make
monthly repayments. But try as much as they can, they are never able to change
situation. The borrower has to cut his monthly expenses to provide for
repayment. The amount to be repaid includes
principal amount of
loan and
interest calculated based on
rate of interest prevailing in
market. This is
traditional method of repayment.
The loan amount is broken into a number of small parts for an easy repayment. The number of parts corresponds with
term of repayment. Thus, if
loan or mortgage is to be repaid in a period of five years,
number of equal parts of
loan will be 60. The repayments are to be made on a monthly or quarterly basis.
An improvement in
method above was made to reduce
burden of a borrower. The borrower is required to pay regular monthly installments as in
earlier method. After a certain number of installments
borrower can pay
remaining balance of
loan with a single balloon payment.
An alternative of
traditional method of repayment is an interest only repayment. In this type of repayment,
borrower is required to pay only
interest. At
end of
term of repayment or any particular time period desired by
borrower,
balance on
loan is repaid in full.
The monthly repayment in
interest only method is far lesser than in
former method. This is because
monthly repayment in case of
former includes both principal and interest. It is on this count that people prefer to repay through
interest only method. However, this method of repayment increases
cost of
loan.
A repayment vehicle is created to repay
loan or mortgage at
end of
term of repayment. The borrower is required to pay a monthly figure into
repayment vehicle.
Pensions, endowment policies, and individual savings account are
most important repayment vehicles. Pensions are widely used for repayment of
loan or mortgage amount. An added advantage in case of
pension policy is that
employer pays half of
amount of pensions. Thus effectively speaking,
borrower spends only half
amount in
repayment. Being tax free, these repayment vehicles offer a cheap means of repayment.