Repayment of a home equity line of credit requires that the borrower make a monthly payment to the lender. For some home equity lines of credit, borrowers can make interest-only payments for a defined period of time, after which a repayment period begins. Interest-only payments are based on the outstanding loan balance and interest rate. During the repayment period the payment includes both repayment of the loan principal, plus monthly interest on the outstanding balance. Loan payments for the repayment period are amortized so that the monthly payment remains the same throughout the repayment period, but during that period, the percentage of the payment that goes towards principal will increase as the outstanding mortgage balance decreases.