To start off we will discuss a little about what an interest-only loan is and some of its features. This type of loan is available in the United States as well as Canada. This type of loan has a set timeline or term where the person who borrows will only be paying the interest on the balance of the loan, the balance itself will not even be touched yet.
When the interest only term is over this is when the borrower can decide to change the loan and go into something that is called a pay the principal, interest-only mortgage or in some cases the loan can be changed into a interest and principal payment (otherwise known as an amortized loan). This is the borrowers choice.
Now as we mentioned previously, this type of mortgage is available in the U.S. The timeline for this type of loan in the U.S is usually a minimum of 10 years. After this amount of time, the balance will be amortized. For example, if you borrowed money and decided on a 30 year contract for the mortgage loan, think of the first 10 years of you paying as your putting money on the interest. In plain English, you are just paying the interest, not even the loan yet.
In this example, after the 10 years are up, the money left to pay will be amortized for the next 20 years. Now normally in this situation the borrower should think about payments as soon as they can or earlier, this would take place during the interest only time line.
This in turn will give the borrower (he or she that borrows the money) more leg room because he or she won't be forced to make any payments at the time to the principal balance. It also gives the borrower a chance to get more money, of course as long as he/she knows that there will be an increase in their paycheck.
Remember that in this allotted time of the interest-only loan, that the total of the loan won't go down unless you (the borrower) plays it smart and pays a little more towards it. This would indeed be the smart thing to do right?
Finally, another piece of information for you dear readers to chew on or mull over is the fact that if you own a house, remember that it won't build up any equity if you have an interest-only mortgage loan on it so if the market decides to fall or go nuts then you could be affected whether or not you are ready to sell your home.
A side effect from this is that you might end up paying higher than normal payments back on your loan. If you can't pay the loan back, of course the lender will seize the house to get the money back.