'1 in 12' have missed mortgage payments

Date:Monday 2nd February 2009
Author: Max Freedman

An average of one in 12 mortgage customers has missed a payment in the last six months, according to figures from MoneyExpert.

The site's figures from January 2008 indicated that some 463,000 people had failed to make a mortgage repayment during the previous six-month period.

But new statistics published this month revealed that an estimated 902,000 homeowners have missed a monthly payment within the past half-year, representing a year-on-year increase of 95 per cent.

According to MoneyExpert director Sean Gardner, missing a payment on a mortgage is "a clear signal that your finances are at breaking point".

He added that with falling interest rates set by the Bank of England, there is "no reason why mortgages should remain prohibitively expensive".

The Bank's monetary policy committee will reconvene to decide the current base rate on February 5th. Last month, it cut the rate by 0.5 percentage points to 1.5 per cent.