Story for The Times: "Extreme" overpayers?

YES - in total I have seen significant outflows this year mainly from ISAS to pay off mortgages plus I tend to direct new cash to this purpose rather than for investments . This makes perfect sense for the majority of clients and now with mortgage rates this high it makes financial sense too . Paying off your mortgage increases your disposal income immediately and if you are a higher rate tax payer is the same as investing in a unit trust that guarantees a riskless return of 8,25%.

Happy to chat about this further

For those with the financial capacity to make either monthly or annual overpayments, it's a strategy worth considering, especially when you consider the interest rates from two years ago with today's figures. I've always been an advocate for overpayments. In fact, for my mortgage, I've opted for an offset arrangement with Coventry, aiming to curtail the interest I shell out.

I've been consulting with numerous clients transitioning from low fixed rates. When we delve into the current best options, which typically come with a heftier price tag, often hundreds of pounds more, they find the transition smoother. Many of them have already been making overpayments on their mortgages, so the uptick in costs doesn't come as a jarring surprise.

I think anybody with the ability to repay either monthly or annual amounts of overpayments should do, once you see the difference between interest rates of 2 years ago to current rates.

I have a number of clients who are coming off low fixed rates and when I discuss the best options now available, which are ordinarily £100s or pounds more expensive, they are as they are already overpaying their mortgage, it is less of a shock.

I've overpaid my mortgage by more than £60,000, and am on course to be mortgage-free in five years' time - 12 years ahead of schedule.

I still have more than a year to run on my nice, low fixed rate, but I've been aggressively doing all I can to reduce the pain of that deal ending, and the interest rate rising.

Far more frequently than before clients are asking about overpayment rules with regards to their mortgages. Most lenders allow you to overpay 10% of the balance without any penalty per year, even on a fixed deal. Some, like NatWest, allow 20% overpayments without penalty. I've even had one client opt for a higher interest rate with NatWest just so they can avoid over payment penalties up to 20% as they plan to use their (rather large) annual bonus to go straight to their mortgage. It's not a problem most have to worry about though as most people can't get anywhere near 10% of their mortgage balance in a single year.

It's something that I'm personally looking to do having just sold a business. That means I'm going to have some lumpy income over the next few years so I'm remortgaging to an offset deal. That means I'm only going to get charged the new higher rates of interest on the difference between the mortgage balance and what is held in the linked savings account with a view to using that balance to clear as much of the mortgage as possible when the new deal ends. That way I get to avoid early repayment charges and can access the savings if needed - the best of both worlds.