Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A majority of first-time UK buyers now pay more towards their monthly mortgage bills than they used to pay in rent, the estate agent Hamptons has found. Last month 56% of first-time buyers said their monthly mortgage bills exceeded their previous rent, the highest proportion in at least a decade. They paid £39 more on…
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Latest Bank of England data (Quarter 3 2026) has shown that credit card defaults increased in the three months to August, with banks and building societies expecting further rises by November, highlighting growing risks in unsecured lending. Within the overall figure, demand for credit card lending was unchanged. Mortgage defaults fell slightly and are expected…
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Around one in five remortgage borrowers were considering variable and tracker mortgages in September while first-time buyers’ interest in variable rate products collapsed, new Money Facts analysis has found. The data in September, 21% of remortgage borrowers researching mortgages on Moneyfactscompare.co.uk were considering variable or tracker mortgages, compared with 14% in July. Whilst 7% of homemovers…
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Mortgage sales to borrowers with impaired credit histories have increased to their highest levels since 2008, according to analysis of FCA data provided following a FOI request by leading independent banking and credit advisory consultancy Broadstone. Through 2025, 10,089 mortgages were sold to borrowers with impaired credit histories, representing an increase of 23% from 8,183…
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The Bank of England has held interest rates at 3.75%. Policymakers voted 6-3 to make no change, with three members voting for an increase by 0.25 percentage points. Three members voted to increase base rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4%. Tamsin Powell, Consumer Finance Expert at Creditspring, said “Today’s decision to keep the base…
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More than six million people who expect to pay housing costs in retirement don’t know how they’ll afford them, according to the latest research from Royal London. The research found that around one in three UK adults (34%), equivalent to 18.7 million people, either expect to pay housing costs in retirement or are already doing so. Four in ten (39%) of the approximately 16…
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Latest Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics for Quarter 2 data from the Bank of England, have shown that low-deposit mortgages hit their highest share in 18 years. The data also showed that the value of outstanding mortgage balances with arrears decreased by 1.9% from the previous quarter to £19.7 billion, the lowest since 2023 Q3,…
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Two-thirds of homeowners under 30 have mortgages lasting 30 to 40 years, with borrowers typically repaying them by age 59, according to analysis of 190,000 borrowers by Sprive. Analysis of more than 190,000 homeowners shows that two thirds (66%) of mortgage holders under 30 are now on terms of between 30 and 40 years. By…
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Almost one in three first-time buyers were considering variable and tracker mortgages in July as higher fixed rates push homebuyers to rethink how they finance their first home, new Moneyfactscompare.co.uk analysis. In July, 31.3% of first-time buyers (FTBs) researching mortgages on Moneyfactscompare.co.uk were considering variable or tracker mortgages, compared with just 9.5% in February. The…
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Latest data from the Bank of England has shown that mortgage approvals fell sharply in May 2026, reaching their lowest level in two and a half years. The data also showed a 14.9% decline, with approvals dropping to 56,205 from 66,034 in April. Net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals remained largely unchanged when compared…
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Following last week’s Bank of England decision to hold interest rates at 3.75%, many homeowners may be breathing a sigh of relief. But after a year of stubborn inflation and global instability keeping borrowing costs higher for longer, those nearing the end of cheaper fixed-rate deals are still facing a sharp jump in monthly outgoings…
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The number of pure interest-only homeowner mortgages outstanding fell by 17.7% in 2025 to 445,000, according to latest figures from UK Finance. In addition, there were 156,000 partial interest-only (part and part) homeowner mortgages outstanding at the end of 2025, 10.3 per cent fewer than in 2024. The total interest-only mortgage stock (including part and…
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Latest Bank of England data has shown that mortgage approvals reached a 15-month high of 65,900 in April, a 3% increase from March. Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals fell to £4.4 billion in April, from £6.8 billion in March, below the previous 6-month average of £5.1 billion. Approvals for remortgaging were broadly unchanged…
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