Japhy Rider

And the whole of the gulf region - Not just Dubai.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you search the HPC archives there are about a zillion long and tortured discussions on this topic. There is no quick answer, because it's difficult to even agree on what the question is. I have personally changed my view on this topic more than once. Here's a link which may help to get you thinking about what the real questions are. Discuss economics Not saying it has the answer but it's a start. JR

Actually, that's not necessarily true. In Dubai it is normal that you are required to pay 1 or 2 years rent in advance. There really isn't much option. The rent is payed up front in the form of cheques wich are then cashed periodically. It used to be that companies wrote the cheque and deducted the rent from your salary, but in the last few years many companies have forced thier staff to take over these liabilities. If you get kicked out of your job after 3 months you're in shit street. As soon as you don't have enough money in the bank, the cheque bounces and you're in jail. You'd be crazy not to do a runner. Now, leaving the wife and kids is a different matter. That's pretty low. JR

I agree (sort of) anything that keeps some control over your money is good.

I'm not sure there is much arbitrage oportunity here. There are a few people whose mortgage rates are tracking the MPC rates. for them there is a theoretical benefit, but if your real rate is low then I would say keep the money if you can. do the sums for a 0.5% or 1.0% difference in your repayments (if you have the option). cash is king! but don't ever default!

I must confess that I didn't read it. It all seems so simple to me... and I don't really like bananas. Now pineapples we could talk about. JR

I would agree (and I do in a way), except that offset accounts are necessarily with the same institution as your mortgage lender. Try telling them that you can't afford your mortgage payment one month. See what they say. JR

Sorry, sarcasm breakdown. reset in progress. edited for pissedness

Morons. why exactly? somebody fetch a calculator for this man. I reference you to post 41. It's a realy simple question.

I'm really weirded out by this thread. I'd have thought that most of the posters here realize the power that savings give you over that of loan repayments. I would go as far as to say that I would happily suck up a o,5 to 1.0% deficit in my saving rate in order to maintain control over my cash. repayments you have made against a loan will never be in your control ever again.

And the answer to my question?

i have a tracker mortgage at 0.5% above base rate. It's a repayment mortgage with conditions so I don't have the option to do what the OP is suggesting. But where did anyone suggest that these kind of mortgages were currently available? please keep the name calling to yourself.

All I did was pose a simple question. If you read the thread you will understand why. I'll do you a deal. If you choose to read the link below and respond to it then you also have to answer my conundrum in post 41. Fair do's? Cash ISA

If you have an IO mortgage you can do it right now and for as long as you want. In fact if you have an IO mortgage you should be doing it already, whether you mean to or not.

you don't need to. You only need to save what you would have paid in capital repayments. I don't know much about isas because I don't live in the uK any more, but I understand you can put in up to about 3,500 a year which is more than the capital repayments would be on many mortgages.