Don’t let financial firms take you for a ride: shop around for the best deals

Apathy. In a world where there are countless demands on our time, social media never sleeps and 24-hour news bombards us with stories of doom and gloom, it’s tempting to down tools, reach for the duvet and adopt the foetal position. But an apathetic attitude has consequences, whether it’s missing that crucial deadline or turning up late for work – again. The same is true in finance, as two new studies out today demonstrate. Take the thorny issue of remortgaging. According to L&C Mortgages, the advisory firm, four million UK households are languishing on standard variable rates. That’s more than a third of homeowners. In addition, 3.4 million households don’t know the current interest rate of their mortgage. With the Bank of England base rate at an historic low and a multitude of great mortgage deals out there, it makes no sense to meander along on an SVR. L&C calculates that £2.78 billion is wasted each year by sitting on the wrong mortgage deal.