Five million Britons on unsuitable mortgages

Five million UK homeowners admit to not being on the most competitive mortgage deal available, according to a new study.

Research published by Abbey claimed that this failure to look around for remortgage deals costs each homeowner an average of £5 daily.

And the lender explained that, if invested in overpayments, this could allow a mortgage to be paid off as much as six years early, offering an average saving in excess of £38,000.

The figures also indicated that almost half of Britons admitted to failing to review their mortgage on a regular basis, with the situation particularly acute among women and those aged between 55 and 64.

Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, head of mortgages at Abbey, said: "£5 a day or £140 a month on average is not an insignificant amount of money and we know for a fact that five million people could benefit immediately by shopping around."

An estimated 1.4 million Britons are expected to come to the end of their current fixed rate mortgages in 2008, but earlier this month, the Council of Mortgage Lenders claimed that, despite tighter funding constraints, business levels in the UK mortgage market were "holding up reasonably well".

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