prepayment

1. The payment of a debt obligation prior to its due date.

2. The excess payment over a scheduled debt repayment amount.

Investopedia Says:
1. Examples include deferred expenses such as rent and early loan repayments.

2. Mortgage pass-through securities are prone to prepayment risk during a period of falling interest rates, as mortgage payments tend to accelerate.

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In general: paying a debt obligation before it comes due.

Accounting: expenditure for a future benefit, which is recorded in a Balance Sheet asset account called a Deferred Charge, then written off in the period when the benefit is enjoyed. For example, prepaid rent is first recorded as an asset, then charged to expense as the rent becomes due on a monthly basis.

Banking: paying a loan before maturity. Some loans (particularly mortgages) have a prepayment clause that allows prepayment at any time without penalty, while others charge a fee if a loan is paid off before due.

Installment credit: making payments before they are due. See also Rule of the 78s.

Securities: paying a seller for a security before the settlement date.

Taxes: prepaying taxes, for example, to have the benefit of deducting state and local taxes from one's federal income tax return in the current calendar year rather than in the next year.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: payment in advance