Mortgage News Mortgage Rate A Mystery To 3 Million Borrowers 18470532
Mortgage rate a mystery to 3 million borrowers
03 March 2010 / by Rachael Stiles
More than three million borrowers in the UK do not know what rate of interest they are paying on their mortgage, research from the Post Office has found.
An estimated 28 per cent of borrowers are unaware what interest rate they are paying on their mortgage, despite the Bank of England base rate currently languishing at a record low of 0.5 per cent.
More than a third of borrowers are currently repaying their mortgage at their lender’s standard variable rate, yet more than a quarter of these borrowers do not know what rate they are currently paying.
The Post Office suggests that such borrower might just be assuming that this is the best deal available, when in reality, they could be saving money by comparing other deals.
Marco Hughes, director of personal lending at the Post Office, said of the figures: “Although it might seem that staying on your current SVR is the easiest thing to do, you are much more vulnerable to interest rate rises. Some providers have increased their SVRs quite significantly even though the Bank of England base rate has not moved and as a result many borrowers are seeing their monthly mortgage repayments increase more quickly than they thought.
“If you’re thinking about switching mortgage, now is the best time to do it, before rates rise further. With many SVRs at or above 4% there are already better deals to be had out there. Switching mortgage does not have to be a stressful experience and spending a bit of time searching and comparing deals could save you a significant amount of money in the long term.”
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