To answer this question, first an understanding is needed of why mortgage products - specifically 360-interest calculation mortgage products - can allow this feature.  These types of loan products must follow a set of rules with very strict guidelines, such as payment frequency, partial pay restrictions, payment matrix settings, expectations for delinquency and fines, and so on. Because of these strict guidelines, special member-facing messages could be created to deal with situations such as when member hits the boundary of how far they can pay ahead or when they pay an amount over the regular loan payment (and if they want to pay the overage to principal). 

For these reasons, 360-interest mortgages can be configured to allow members to pay ahead a set number of payments. Other options that can be selected in the loan category include restricting the member to pay only the current payment (single pay per period) or allowing them to pay an indefinite number of payments ahead. In fact, the options for a set number of months (1 to 9) to pay ahead was originally conceived as a way to allow members to pay ahead on 360 mortgages, but not indefinitely like they can for other types of loans.

With other types of loan products, the rules on how to process a 360-interest calculation mortgage loan payment are not all in play. The flexibility allows for other types of interest calculations and payment frequencies, allows fines to be paid differently, and allows partial payments, etc. For example, programs would need to consideration:

• Since partial payments are allowed, what messages should the member see when they make a payment that is not the full loan payment amount?  
• How should batch processing payments, such as those made by ACH and Automated Funds Transfer (AFT) be handled?
• How should escrows and escrow payments be handled?
• How should fines be handled, especially for all of the different payment matrix combinations that might be in play?

Because there are no firm rules in place, it is a much larger investment to code all interactive posting programs to perform the required analyses and messaging that would control how many months a member can pay ahead. Therefore a business decision has been made not to invest in expanding this feature for non-360-mortgage products at this time.