Relaxed singles twice as likely to ignore MPC rate decision

Interest rates may be predicted to come down in the coming months - but single people are almost twice as likely to ignore the Bank of England’s latest decision compared to couples, new Ipsos MORI research from Intelligent Finance shows.

Fifty-four per cent of single people say they won’t take any notice of the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision in January, compared to only 28% of people who are married or living with a partner. These figures compare to an average of 34% across all mortgage-holders.

Reflecting their joint concerns, nearly half of all those married or living with a partner are worried about the impact of a potential rate change. 39% of couples say they are “fairly” worried while a further 8% are “extremely” concerned. This compares to only 30% and 1% of single people who say they are “fairly” or “extremely” worried respectively.

Cammy Amaira, Director of Sales, Intelligent Finance said: “It seems that the image of the care-free single is certainly true where mortgages are concerned. But regardless of whether you are single or in a relationship, making your money work harder for you by choosing the right mortgage should be a priority. Offset mortgages can give that peace of mind by allowing customers to pay no interest on part or even all of their borrowings – that’s a good deal whether rates go up or down!”

Offset makes your money work harder

By choosing to offset, a couple could save £61,389.87 and shave five years and three months off the term. This is based on the couple taking out a 25 year home purchase offset lifetime tracker (at 0.44% above BoE rate), borrowing £150,832 on a repayment basis against a property worth £194,895 with £18,566 in savings and £3,000 monthly salary paid into a current account.