‘I am avoiding credit cards to pay off mortgage early’

KATIE Davidson, 26, has a fixed rate mortgage of ВЈ135,000 from Standard Life Bank for her two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh - and she’s determined to pay it off early. She took the mortgage out in April and is currently overpaying ВЈ15 a month. She is a customer services representative in a bank and plans to overpay more as her salary increases. Davidson said: “I pay a minimum of ВЈ627 a month, but try to overpay to clear the mortgage before 25 years are up.

“The rate is fixed at 5.37 per cent and it was a bit of a struggle to afford to buy a flat. “Some of my friends who are still at home can afford to go out all the time. I can’t but I’m glad to have a flat of my own. I think once you get in the habit of overpaying you don’t miss the money as you live on what you have.

“I’ve learned from working in a bank and use the online tools to decide how much I can spend on things like clothes, council tax and other bills and what amount I can afford to overpay. I also avoid having credit cards or other debts as I don’t think they’re a good idea. “I prefer to save up to buy things like Christmas presents and worked at a music festival during the summer to make more money. “I want to pay as much as I can towards my mortgage now rather than wait until I’m older.

Say I settle down and have a family, I would be looking for somewhere bigger.” Davidson is a good example of how, with a few sacrifices, you can get on the road to being debt-free.