{"id":367124,"date":"2026-01-13T05:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/367124\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T05:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:39:12","slug":"we-were-hit-by-a-10000-a-year-mortgage-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/367124\/","title":{"rendered":"We were hit by a \u00a310,000-a-year mortgage rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tJenny Letts remortgaged in 2024 and saw her bills soar – but she hopes to get a reduction this April\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

When Jenny Letts bought her home eight years ago she knew she and her husband were stretching themselves financially.<\/p>\n

They were buying their \u201cforever home\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a four bedroom house in Staffordshire, which they would share with their two twin boys \u2013 and had thought about the potential risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always looked at what the worst that could happen would be \u2013 so that might be one of us losing our jobs for example,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

But what they hadn\u2019t fully accounted for was the interest rate rise that came when they remortgaged the property<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

When Jenny, 49, bought the home for just over \u00a3400,000, the Bank of England interest rate was 0.25 per cent, and so the borrowing costs on the mortgage were cheap.<\/p>\n

But by the time April 2024 came round and they were due to remortgage, rates were at their highest in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

It meant that after remortgaging, their costs shot up by around \u00a3800 per month \u2013 \u00a39,600 per year \u2013 with the couple paying a total of \u00a32,200 per month for their home loan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a tidal wave \u2013 we had to strip everything back in terms of spending,\u201d explains Jenny.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to put the increase on the fridge as I\u2019m a visual person and helped me realise how much it actually was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She cancelled gym memberships and subscriptions, and the family cut down on travel abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve become so use to being prudent with our money\u201d, she said. <\/p>\n

Jenny also used mortgage cashback app Sprive to reduce her mortgage balance. The app lets you earn cashback from shopping that\u2019s automatically saved and used to make\u00a0mortgage<\/a>\u00a0overpayments.<\/p>\n

But come this April, when their two-year mortgage fix comes to an end, Jenny is hoping they may get some respite from the high costs.<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates are generally lower than the 4.8 per cent rate which Jenny got on the property \u2013 with deals well below 4 per cent for many customers.<\/p>\n

It means they may be able to cut their bills, and while the family will still be sensible with their spending, they may have some more cash left over at the end of each month.<\/p>\n

She explains: \u201cThough I\u2019ve been used to being prudent I would love to join the gym and maybe get some new clothes, but the twins will come first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re teenagers now and we can\u2019t get away with getting them cheap stuff, there\u2019s trends and things they would love to keep up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny\u2019s situation outlines one of the scenarios some of the 1.8 million households coming off mortgage fixes this year will face.<\/p>\n

Many families coming off five-year fixes signed in 2021 will find themselves paying far more than they currently do, as they are rolling off deals that could be at below 2 per cent interest rates.<\/p>\n

But there is a second profile of mortgage holder \u2013 those on two-year fixes signed when deals were among the most expensive they have been in recent memory. These people could finally see their financial pressures lifted.<\/p>\n

Elliott Culley, director at Switch Mortgage Finance says: \u201cBorrowers will have different perspectives on current rates depending on what camp they are in. You have the clients coming off very low five-year fixed rates whilst others are coming off high two-year fixed rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost two-year fixed renewals I have been reviewing are in a better position now with rates dropping this has led to savings for clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny, who works in PR, says many of her own friends fall into the second camp.<\/p>\n

She says although she bought an expensive home and stretched herself financially though, she does not regret the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of friends are in the same position, we\u2019ve bought houses that stretched us, but we hope it\u2019ll pay off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t being stupid buying this house because we hope that over time, as we pay off the mortgage, it will go up in value,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For now, she\u2019s looking forward to the bill reduction in April, at which point she hopes her bills could drop by several hundred pounds per month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jenny Letts remortgaged in 2024 and saw her bills soar – but she hopes to get a reduction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3490,84,1294,140478,25949,2295,140479,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-367124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bank-of-england","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-home-ownership","tag-mortgages","tag-property","tag-remortgage","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}