Does anyone remember when mortgage rates were almost 17%!

We bought our first house in 1969 and bought our second in 1973 but hadn’t sold the first as sale fell through at the last moment. Two mortgages. We were young…..

However living in France, let me tell you if you take a mortgage out with a French bank, the rate you sign for is that you pay for the rest of the repayment, even if the rate shoots up.. Moreover, if the rate goes down you can speak to the bank, or play one bank against the other and get a lower rate.

When I think of the misery I and all the others suffered and will suffer in the UK, I really don’t understand why it can’t be done the French way.

Nowadays, in the UK as well, people take out fixed rate mortgages, however they will rarely be for more than 10 years at an absolute max and are usually 3 - 5 years long.

We have just taken out a Retirement Interest Only mortgage to pay for an extension. The rate is fixed for the first 5 years

But MOnica, these mortgages are fixed at the very low rates and can be spread over as many years as you wish, 25 years + if you wish. At the time of signing you are given a spreadsheet of all the payments due over the years. There is no shortfall because the rate was so low at the beginning.

If you move and same mortgage can be transferred to the new home

I can recall mortgage rates being that high, and also one terrible week when inflation and mortgage rates, already high, were hit by a financial crisis that saw interest rates rise yet again and to a frightening figure. My work colleague had just bought a house that he could barely afford, and on the day when the news was released he felt so ill and stressed that he went home. My OH worked in finance in the City and tried to reassure him that it wouldn't sustain - the Government would recover the crisis and the rates would return to what they were - and they did, quite quickly - but what a frightening time that was. I was uncomfortably aware that we too were stretched to the limit and both working full time - there was no more 'give' in our economy!

mortgages are now treated like utility bills. You regularly shop round to see of you can do better with another lender.

It is fine if you have a fixed rate for the full term of the mortgage when rates are low, but imagine you had signed up for a mortgage when rates were over 10% and they drop, as they have done, to only 2 or 3% when you are stuck with paying 10%.

You can port mortgages from one house to another in the UK, but it is not common.

I think every system in the UK and elsewhere have pros and cons and we are most comfortable with the system we are most familiar with.

^ It is fine if you have a fixed rate for the full term of the mortgage when rates are low, but imagine you had signed up for a mortgage when rates were over 10% and they drop, as they have done, to only 2 or 3% when you are stuck with paying 10%.^
Too true in the UK but in France you can change to a lower fixed rate.

Yes I’m 1975 we bought our first house It was my money but my name never went on the mortgage account Lived on egg curry Had£6 a week to live on Was expected to give up work once had a child no way did nights Mu in-laws no help man attitude

In our city of York, house prices actually doubled the following year (1988), such that the wonderful family who moved next but one to us paid more for their mid terrace two bed than we did for much larger three bed. However they were leaving a one bed London mousehole, so were still thrilled to get garden etc. Just not fair, who gets what for how much.

mokryna we change to different rates in the UK as well. If automatic it called the 'variable rate' but now adays, many people prefer to negotiate an even better deal with a different lender.