Does anyone remember when mortgage rates were almost 17%!

We bought our house in the early 70s and our term went up to infinity! Yes, £5 a week house -keeping. Faggots were frequent fare. Also wage freezes didn't help, but eventually things eased and we were able to pay off the mortgage early

We bought our council house in 1988 on a repayment/ endowment mortgage with the co-op . We seemed to get a letter giving us a increase in interest every single month . I’m not sure how the interest rates increased for but we managed the payments ok . What I do remember is that there was then a big fuss over the fact that endowment policies weren’t going to make enough money to cover the house cost during the fifteen years we had taken it over . We then changed the mortgage to a normal one and cashed in the policy when it matured after the fifteen years. Turns out it would have more than covered the initial mortgage but instead we were able to use the money for home improvements . Win win .

Oh yes I remember only too well as it nearly bankrupted us. Our outgoings were more than our incomings and we were by no means frivolous with our money but having 3 young children to feed, clothe and keep a roof over their heads was extremely tough. The credit cards kept us afloat but took years to pay off. I’d recoil in horror at the amount of interest accumulated each month.

We bought our first house in 1976 and had a 15% mortgage. My husband was self employed and he didn’t have enough years earnings to get a mortgage. My husbands accountant arranged for them to include my earnings - civil service - and we managed to get a £4,000 mortgage. This was a mid-terrace property, badly in need of renovation, and we had to complete the renovation before they would give the mortgage. Fortunately, we were buying off a good friends parents and they agreed this situation. We took around 10 months to do it up ourselves, with some paid work to plumbers etc. Terrifying, as if it didn’t go to plan, we would have lost everything. What I find difficult to understand with the younger element is why they can afford to buy coffee every day for work, buy sandwiches etc, get their nails done and then complain that they have no money, where are their priorities? We were brought up on the maxim - if you can’t afford, don’t buy it. Served me well, over the years.

Yes. We had to give our house back to building society as it was impossible to sell back then. So many were doing this as they could no longer pay the mortgage...

Remember it all too well, having to sell as we could not pay the mortgage in the end. Invested the money in shares through the bank until we could buy again 5 years later as they were doing so well, then came black Monday and one more fall. We lost a 3rd of everything and had to start from scratch. Gosh is was a hard time to survive with young children and both working full time, no reliable childcare and what there was was dreadfully expensive we thought. You can't even compare it all with now though.

Yes we had just bought our first house using all our savings. We had been in a furnished flat before so only had a bed an old Formica kitchen table with 4 kitchen chairs and two old wooden armed fireside chairs both lots given by my grandparents. We had planned to buy furniture second hand as we could afford it. Then just after we moved the rates shot up. The house had no wardrobes, no fitted kitchen just a larder and luckily we bought the old cooker off the previous owners. We lived out of bin bags for over a year til we could afford second hand wardrobes then a chest of drawers. I made floor cushions out of scraps of material stuffed with a cut up old bed quilt so we or our guests could sit down as the wooden kitchen chairs were not comfortable. We rented a tv and had a radio as couldn’t afford to go out. That was life, a lot of people were the same.

I certainly do. Our rate changed once a year to reflect the increases and it shot up by over £150-a lot in those days. I had to return to work sooner than planned. It was very much a hand to mouth existence

Yes, I was newly divorced and had bought his share of the house off him, it wasn't easy. I took in 'paying guests' - lodgers - to help make ends meet. Still friends with two of them.

In the words from a Maurice Chevalier song, 'O yes I remember it well' .

Juliet27

What a wonderful time that must have been for those with savings!!

Interest rates on savings were nowhere near as high

I worked in a building society for 20 years and in the 1980s the interest rates were sky high. Frequently people were just giving us their house keys saying they couldn't cope with the mortgage payments any more. We were fortunate that I had a staff mortgage at a much lower rate but when we were first married, we both worked at 2 jobs for over 2 years, 9 -5 at one and then 6-10pm at another to save up a deposit which was 30% of the price of our flat. When we had children, my husband worked Monday to Friday and I worked all weekend - we only had bank holidays together for 6 years. Our furniture was all hand-me-downs. It was a real struggle but we did it. I think a lot of young people today have more of a sense of entitlement and wouldn't want to put in the hours of work that we did.

I remember it well and we survived it despite being at a critical stage in our lives - house purchase and starting/raising a family. So I find it hard to believe how people struggle to buy a house with rates so low these days and are moaning about prospective increases in interest rates which, if they happen, will begin to repay those of us who paid such high mortgage repayments who now deserve a better return on their savings than they've experienced over the last 15 or so years.

Where were the food banks in those days when we were all struggling. We had to manage. Or if we were lucky Mum and Dad invited us all round for dinner a couple of times a week.

I do remember it - taking on our first mortgage was a seriously scary endeavour, especially as a baby was on the way.

We bought our first house in 1985, our mortgage went from £120 - £550pm, we gave up in 1988, went into Council accommodation and didn't buy again until 2001.

We bought our do-er upper house in December 1980 for £18k, spent 9 months doing it up & then married in September 1981. We had an endowment mortgage with the rates shooting up. Then as I worked in a bank we did eventually get a staff mortgage at 9% and felt so relieved. I feel so sorry for my children as they can’t afford to buy without shared ownership (eldest married) and youngest is still living at hone as she cannot afford to move out at all.

Where were the food banks in those days when we were all struggling. We had to manage.

Yes, we just got on with it. I learnt how to make a chicken last a whole week, and a friend had Bramley apple trees in her garden so I became very inventive with apples.

We rented a TV and walked everywhere.

I remember it well. We had four young children and I was not able to work. We lived on pasta and very simple foods for a couple of years and never took holidays or spent much on anything other than the basics.
But we were luckier than many because we first bought in 1976 and always tried to keep to a relatively small mortgage.
Today people seem to be able to borrow far more in terms of multiples of salary and regard taking foreign holidays and visiting theme parks as a right.

I should add that all my four children are safely housed in their own properties because we've downsized and shared out the equity that was released. We didn't need to stay in our large house when we were living alone.

Yup! I definitely remember 15%, and that you were only allowed to borrow 2.5 times your salary, none of this 120% mortgage nonsense.

Alrsady having a DD at Uni and twin DS starting too with 3 accommodation costs we worked cheaper to buy a flat. This was 1992. Hadn't even finished decorating when mortgage rate when up to the 17% rate. It didn't stay that high for long but two mortgages at that rate, it was hard. Yes, boomers are constantly told they had it easy: try imposing 8% etc mortgage rates now, there would be riots. It could though bring down house prices!

Although we've been lucky and made money on houses we didn't choose them to make money but to have a home. So many people buy houses today solely with a view of making money and moving on - not surprisingly some of them are overstretching themselves.

In1967 my interest rate on my mortgage was wait for it.....4%That was a council mortgage !!@

We were typical 'Get on your bike and look for work' people in the early 1980s. We reluctantly moved twice in two years across the country. Gazumping was rife. All the new houses on a housing estate were sold the very second that they were put on the market. Mortgages were decided by the Building Society and they only met every month! All out money went on our mortgage. We had to eke out my husbands wages and although ill at the time, I forced myself to work.
They were horrible times. Remember going to a playgroup and there were mothers from all over the country that had moved because there was no work locally. I still remain such a long distance from my home town and elderly mother.