Use the smoking ban to take years off your mortgage

With just over a week to go until smoking in enclosed public spaces is banned, Charcol.co.uk is urging anyone already considering using the ban as a catalyst to giving up smoking to also think of the financial benefits as additional motivation. Someone with a 25 year repayment mortgage could save over £29,000 in interest and shave over 8 years from the term of their loan if they used the money saved by quitting smoking to overpay on their mortgage.

Drew Wotherspoon of Charcol.co.uk comments: “When smokers look at what quitting can do to their finances it may provide that added incentive to finally stub out the habit. A 20-a-day smoker can save around £2,016 a year by giving up which, in itself, is incentive enough. Yet when you look at what overpaying by this amount can do to a mortgage, it is even more of an enticement. Even someone with a relatively small mortgage of £100,000 will pay £29,378 less in interest.”

Wotherspoon continues, “There is clearly a lot to be saved if potential quitters take this approach. Coupled with savings on life assurance premiums and even some home contents insurance policies, there really is a great financial argument for not lighting-up, as well as the obvious benefit to your health. Life cover of £100,000 for a twenty five year term would cost a 35 year old male smoker £17 a month, whereas for a non-smoker it would be around £9.”

For the money that you now won’t be sending up in smoke, the market leading 2 year fixed rate from Halifax at 5.34% (7.3% APR) with a £1,499 fee allows 10% overpayment a year, and many of the standard mortgages in today’s market allow some degree of overpayment.