The mortgage fees and charges applied by banks and building societies
are not always as clear as they could be and many people do not
understand exactly how much a mortgage will cost them over the lifetime
of the loan. Many simply ficus on the monthly repayments and the
interest rate they are paying. Yet research has revealed that only five
in a thousand people in the UK understand the true cost of their
mortgage deals. The survey by which found that a staggering 99.5 per
cent of borrowers failed to grasp all the costs involved with the
average mortgage deal.
Lenders are being urged to change the way they communicate their
mortgage fees as a result of this research from the consumer group.
However, the data is not wide ranging as it only looked at 2-year fixed
rate deals based on a 100,000 home loan but it did indicate that the
average consumer found it difficult to assess which was the cheapest of a
range of deals because of the lack of transparency in the fees and
charges and this is what is of most concern.
Whilst the results
varied depending on the type of borrower questioned, the survey
nevertheless showed that only a minority could correctly order 5
mortgage deals from most expensive to least expensive so this is
worrying research as it clearly shows that most borrowers find it hard
to work out the total cost of a large mortgage deal taking all costs
into account.
Sometimes the deal with a higher arrangement fee
can work out costing less and sometimes the deal with the lowest
interest rate is not the cheapest. It, obviously depends on the level of
mortgage you want to take out, the interest rate basis (fixed, tracker
or standard variable) and the mortgage term. It is often worth taking
specialist advice to establish which is the best deal for your own
personal and financial circumstances
On the whole mortgage borrowers find it difficult to accept that a low
interest rate deal is not necessarily the cheapest; a typical borrower
is still attracted by the headline rate rather than by the overall cost.
Nevertheless, lenders should be more transparent when showing
their charging structures so that borrowers have the opportunity to more
easily compare total costs rather than simply headline rates. This is
so important because more than 80 per cent of the thousands of mortgages
available in the UK include arrangement fees or other types of fee. And
mortgage arrangement fees have been rising rapidly over the past 2 or 3
years.
Many of the very low mortgage interest rates now on
offer can seem very attractive, as indeed some are, but the flip side of
those low rates is that big mortgage arrangement fees are being
imposed. These fees have risen dramatically,making it even more
important for borrowers to understand the cost of their mortgage over
the lifetime of the deal, especially those with large mortgages that are
likely to incur higher charges. If people are struggling to understand
such an important financial commitment them lenders should be doing more
to help clarify the costs.
