Best buys: mortgage guide  Mortgages we like. Mortgages we don't
like. And how to buy a house. We like...early repayments  It is
a good idea for borrowers to overpay on their mortgage to eat
into the capital balance. It will see the mortgage repaid early,
cutting the amount of interest paid over the life of the
mortgage.  Effectively, the borrower earns the mortgage rate on
their savings and there is no tax to be paid. For example, if
the mortgage rate is 5%, a higher rate taxpayer would need to
earn 8.33% gross on their savings to earn the same return.  But
it is important to make sure that there are no penalties for
paying off and that the benefit of the overpayment will be felt
immediately. Many deals offer partial penalty free overpayments
even if they are not completely penalty free products.  We don't
like... endowments  Endowments are the major cause of headaches
for many borrowers whose policies fall short of the amount
required to repay the mortgage.  It's best to tackle the problem
sooner rather tha