According to research from Trussle, 41% of homeowners in the UK suffer from mortgage stress and 70% wish their lender would go digital.
Many homeowners are stressed out due to the lack of transparency from their lenders and an inability to manage their debt online.
And while I’ve never really thought about it before, this research has got me nodding along in agreement because I can definitely relate.
I wouldn’t say I’m stressed out about my debt, as such. My repayments are manageable, I make a monthly overpayment of £20, and I know that when my fixed rate deal approaches expiry in 4 years, I’ll get in touch with my mortgage broker Habito so I can start looking for a better deal. However, when it comes to online transparency and money management, my lender is poor.
I’m with Platform (yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either) and although I’m happy with the mortgage deal itself, my lender seems to be stuck in the dark ages when it comes to technology.
The website’s crap and designed primarily for brokers, there’s very little information online, and it all just feels very mysterious.
I wish I could log into an online account, see exactly how much I owe, how much I’ve already paid, and how much interest has been added on top of my initial debt.
It’d be great if there was an app that presented me with graphs and charts and tables, so I could effortlessly manage my mortgage debt.
If there was, I really think this would help to incentivise overpayments and make it easier for me to make more financial decisions.
When I come to remortgage in 4 years (when my fixed rate is approaching expiry) I think I’ll ask my mortgage broker to highlight more digital-friendly banks. Hopefully by 2022 more lenders will be tech-friendly and I’ll have a decent choice of deals. Affordability will still be my number one priority (and that’s why I chose this loan) but it’d be nice to take fintech into account too.
