What if I made extra repayments on a debt?
An extra payment feels obviously good, but what it buys depends on what the lender does with it: some contracts shorten the term, others shrink the monthly payment, and a few charge for the privilege. Meanwhile the money has left your reserve, and that is the part worth looking at.
What shapes the outcome
- Which debt you target, how much you send, and whether it is one-off or recurring.
- The interest rate and the remaining term of that debt at the moment you pay.
- Where the money comes from — savings, investments, or income you would otherwise spend.
- Any fee or contractual limit that your lender applies to an early repayment.
- Whether the term shortens or the payment falls, and what happens to the freed cashflow.
Compare against the untouched schedule
Keep one copy of the plan on its original repayment schedule and add the extra payment only to the other. Same income, same spending, same horizon, same source of funds — otherwise the payoff date you read back is partly the product of something else you changed along the way.
Watch the month of the payment as closely as the payoff date. The interest you avoid arrives slowly over years, while the hole in your accessible money appears immediately. A repayment that is clearly worthwhile over ten years can still be badly timed for the next six months.
Questions worth testing
- By how many months does the payoff date actually move?
- How thin does accessible money get in the month the payment leaves?
- Would several smaller payments across a year sit more comfortably than one large one?
- What does the same amount do if it stays where it is instead?
How to read the result
The result reflects the amount, timing and funding source you entered against the schedule already in the plan. Early-repayment fees and contractual limits differ by lender and by contract; Worthifi does not apply them, does not renegotiate your schedule and does not know what your bank will allow. Check your loan agreement. This is not financial, tax or debt advice.
How it works in the app
Add one or more extra repayments, funded from savings or investments, and see how much sooner the debt is paid off — against the opportunity cost of using that money elsewhere.
- Open the debt and tap “Extra repayment”.
- Enter the amount and choose savings or investments as the funding source.
- Check the new payoff date and the change in net worth.
Model this yourself