Even in a world of low interest rates, you could end up paying thousands more on your mortgage if you forget to remortgage when your fixed rate, variable or tracker deal approaches its end.

This is because you will automatically be placed on your lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR) when your deal ends, which can be 2% to 5% higher than the Bank of England base rate and much higher on average than current fixed mortgage rates. By comparison, data at the beginning of December revealed that the best five-year fixed rate for remortgagers was just 0.99%5.

Never remortgaged?

Despite the potential savings, nearly half (49%) of homeowners have never remortgaged their property, even though they had been making repayments for over 13 years on average6 . This is according to a survey from Barclays, which also revealed that nearly a third of the respondents didn’t understand what an SVR is.

Don’t lose out

Recent analysis7 suggests that a homeowner could save over £5,000 across a two-year period by remortgaging from their lender’s SVR to a fixed rate deal. If you’d like assistance in assessing your own remortgage options and potentially cutting your monthly repayments, get in touch.

5 Moneyfacts, 2021,6 Barclays, 2021, 7 Experian, 2020