Martin Lewis

"The act of paying a booking fee does not secure you the interest rate with the lender, it is the act of making the application that secures you the rate. So don't discount a deal that could be perfect for you simply because it does not have a booking fee. In fact, very few lenders have booking fees on their mortgage deals currently, so there is a very good chance people would miss out on many more suitable and cheaper deals if they blindly went in search of one simply on the basis that it had a booking fee and others didn't."

"The advice to secure a rate as soon as possible is absolutely correct as they have been rising sharply and continue to do so but the information around a booking fee is largely inaccurate as you can secure a new rate in most cases without paying any upfront fees."

"Winter is coming, but beware those who preach the apocalypse. Homeowners have benefited from record low interest rates since 2016 and for many it is all they have known. You don't need to be that old to remember that these rates are not "normal". We entered the 90's with rates at over 13% and the 00's with rates at 6%. So can we expect mortgage rates to go up? Yes. With the popularity of 2 year fixed rate deals - especially among "non-advised" homeowners, will we see mortgage shock being experienced by many? Most certainly. Will it cause foreclosures and mass repossessions? I don't think so. "Why? Because in 2014 something called the Mortgage Market Review came into force and as part of this the industry introduced stress testing to ensure borrowers could afford to maintain payments at a hypothetical higher rate. Well, we may just be entering hypothetical rate territory. The other reason for optimism is many new borrowers will have borrowed at 95% loan to values, which carry a significant premium over a more standard value. House prices have risen to such an extent that many of these people will benefit from lower rates available to 80% LTV mortgagees, when they exit their fixed deals, just when they need it."