With the bank base rate at its highest level for 15 years, we have all likely heard of some eye-watering increases in people’s monthly mortgage costs.

And with such scary news stories, if you still have a little while to go before you have to re-mortgage, you might be tempted to hold off until the last minute to find out how much extra you might have to pay.

However, one of the best ways of managing your mortgage increase is to identify the additional payments as soon as possible so you can make a plan. And because you can ‘lock in’ rates up to six months in advance, acting sooner rather than later may be the best move.

Here are our three top tips to help manage any rise in mortgage payments:
1. Speak to a broker or your lender at least six months in advance – you can lock in deals early with some lenders.
In the past, contacting a lender or broker up to three months before you were due to remortgage would generally be enough time to get a deal in place. However, it’s now well worth contacting them six months before your current mortgage expires, as you can lock in a deal that far in advance.

With a possibility that rates could rise further this year (5.25% as of Aug 2023), this could potentially allow you to fix at a lower rate than would be available six months from now. And because mortgage deals are going very quickly – with some being pulled by lenders at a few hour’s notice – it’s worth acting quickly, as good mortgage rates you can access now might not even be available in a few weeks or days.