I rang the broker that set up our mortgage yesterday. We have a split loan and there is $9577 in the variable loan at the moment. When we pay that off, hopefully by November this year, we can shut down that loan (and save the $8 fee YAY!). The rest of the mortgage is in a fixed loan (balance: $98 146). The thing is I won't be able to close the variable loan until I have saved up an emergency fundas if you pay extra to the fixed loan you can't withdraw it. so hopefully by January I will have saved an EF and then we can start paying extra to the Fixed. I am able to pay $10 000 a year extra to the fixed loan so I am hoping to do that. Then when the fixed loan expires in July 2008 it will revert to a standard variable loan and I will just attach an offset account to it. The broker suggested going to a basic loan but I want the convenience of an offset account. With a basic loan it costs $50 to withdraw from it and you never know when you will need to withdraw money!

Mortgages have got more complicated over the years haven't they! LOL