American Mortgages / Home Loans UK vs USA Differences

I'm interested in the differences between American Mortgages & UK mortgages.

I've recently just purchased a property in the UK in the last few months - March this year to be precise.

I know what my repayments are, can check the balance of my mortgage online instantly and can overpay / underpay as and when.

Also i know that my loan tracks the Bank of England base rate NOT the banks rate at +1.5% points.

So as the BoE rate is 0.5% i'm paying 2% interest on my mortgage at the moment.

Its quite cool as well, i can logon to my internet banking site, see my VISA balance ( currently 0 ! my current account (Checking) and my mortgage all next to each other.

Its quite scare though as the mortgage comes up with -vs000 against my current account, but they balance each other out, but i can over pay my mortgage without penalty, then if need be, move the 'overpayment' back into my current account.

Most UK mortgages follow the bank of England base rate on 'variable trackers' so the vast majority of uk home owners are automatically better off when the banks lower the base rate, as UK banks automatically change your mortgage payments to reflect the new interest rates.

I'm just under the impression USA mortgages don't work in the same way and wondered what some of our state side contributes thought of this ?