The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the association that represents most of the mortgage lenders in the UK, has reported that re mortgages in January 2010 were 15 percent down on December 2009 and 47 percent down on January 2009. A total of 24,000 remortgages with an average deal of £125,000 were sold in that month. A CML spokesman said “The average SVR has fallen from 4.9% to 3.62%. When people reach the end their fixed-rate deals and look at the costs, they find it may be a better option to go onto the SVR and sit there.” He added that remortgaging was unlikely to increase unless interest rates begin to rise.

Despite the fact that they should stay right on top of mortgage rate developments, many people in the UK are failing to do so. The Post Office found that one of every 3 mortgage customers were unable to name the interest rate that they were paying. This means that they are being hit hard in the pocket because they are unable to switch products with a potential saving of hundreds of pounds. They are ignorant of even such mortgage market basics as whether to choose fixed or variable rates.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, comments: "When they first take out the mortgage, they are likely to be aware of the interest rate, but once interest rates change, I think that is when they tend to lose sight of what it is. In general I would say that there is a considerable lack of knowledge about people's specific mortgage products."

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