Scots worried about soaring mortgage rates as demand for advice on bills rises

Source: Daily Record — 

Desperate Scots are flocking to an advice website for information on their mortgage payments during the cost of living crisis. Citizens Advice Scotland said there had been a 223 per cent increase in use of their mortgage calculator to work out monthly bills.

Rising interest rates are putting massive pressure on family budgets already battered by high inflation and stagnant wages. Householders on variable rates have seen their payments shoot up due to a string of Bank of England base rate increases.

Around 1.8million fixed-rate mortgage deals across the UK are scheduled to end in 2023, which experts predict will see bills going up by thousands of pounds. Average two and five-year fixed-rate mortgages breached 6 per cent in the autumn – a huge increase compared to a year ago.

Someone taking out a £200,000 mortgage in December this year could typically face paying around £1,269 per month on a two-year fixed-rate, compared with around £881 per month this time last year. According to CAS, there has been record demand for their online calculator over the past two months.