It’s been an interesting month at Mortgage Required, as we launched our 2016 campaign,” Saving Britain, one Mortgage at a time.” As well as making the staff dress up as Superheroes (yes really), we hit the road to take the message round the Thames Valley, that just like any other household bill, homeowners can also save money on their mortgage.

The basis of the campaign is to get people to “Take the Mortgage Required Challenge” and check what interest rate they are paying to see if it can be beaten! As we all suspected, in a lot of cases (71% at last count), it can!

Most of the people we spoke to were paying their lender’s standard variable rate, which is simply the rate the bank or building society choose to charge. This ranged from 2.5% to a staggering 5.99%!

The most interesting thing about the campaign has been the reasons given why these borrowers have done nothing previously to try to save money. In no particular order the reasons given were:

1. “I thought it would cost a lot of money to swap,” (the fees are generally nominal compared to the savings)

2. “I didn’t know I was allowed to swap lenders” (you are)

3. “It’s too long and complicated to do it,” (generally it takes 6 weeks and the savings are worth the pain!)

4. “I didn’t know where to start,” (start here!) My favourite by far is the client who told me “I think my mortgage is with Halifax,“ (it wasn’t), “I think it’s about £450 per month,” (it was £720) “but I think it’s a really good deal so I doubt I can save any money,” (we saved her £205 per month)!

It seems that although we are now all getting better at swapping our car insurance and comparing energy tariffs on line, borrowers really want to talk to someone when it comes to something as important as their mortgage. The biggest problem I am told is knowing where to find a good broker who you can trust. I suggest you ask around, take a recommendation or failing that, click here to take the Mortgage Required Challenge now or speak to a super hero mortgage adviser on 01628 507477.