Half of mortgage holders 'do not know their interest rate'

Date:Friday 5th March 2010
Author: Susanna Kavka

As many as half of consumers who hold a mortgage do not know the interest rate they are paying on it, it has been stated.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said that the figure of 28 per cent published recently by the Post Office was, in his opinion, as "gross underestimate".

From his own experience of speaking with clients, Mr Boulger believes that it is closer to 50 per cent of people who do not know what they are paying back on their loan.

He blames this on "a considerable lack of knowledge about people's specific mortgage products."

In addition to the number of people who are unaware of their product's interest rates, a further 29 per cent of the 35 per cent of consumers on their lender's Standard Variable Rate do not know what the rate is and are assuming that it is the best that is on offer to them.