If you have been anywhere near a mortgage this month you will have noticed rates moving the wrong way. Plenty of people respond by ringing the bank they already hold their current account with. It feels like the simple option. This is why it often is not, and what the alternative actually involves.
Start with the facts, because they explain everything that follows.
The Bank of England has held Bank Rate at 3.75% since 30 July 2026. Nothing has changed there. Yet Moneyfacts reported on 16 September 2026 that NatWest, Santander, HSBC and Lloyds had all raised their rates for the second time since the beginning of the month, and that the average five year fixed rate across the market had reached 5.82%, the highest it has been since November 2023.
Lenders do not price fixed rate mortgages off Bank Rate. They price them off swap rates, which move on what markets expect to happen to interest rates in future. When inflation came in at 3.1% for August, up from 2.9%, as the Office for National Statistics reported on 16 September 2026, those expectations shifted and lenders repriced. Some of them twice in a fortnight.
The repricing has not been uniform either. Mortgage Solutions reported Accord raising rates by up to 0.40% and TSB by up to 0.25% on 15 September, while earlier in the month Paragon and Landbay had both been cutting. Different lenders, different funding positions, different directions, same week.
Your bank has exactly one rate sheet. It is not hiding a better one. When it reprices upwards, that is the end of the conversation as far as that phone call is concerned.
Here is the part that makes the point better than anything I could write. These were the market leading rates as Moneyfacts recorded them on 16 September 2026:
Six categories, four different lenders. Not one institution held the best rate across the board, and none of them holds it permanently. Whichever bank you happen to have banked with since you were nineteen is very unlikely to be the right answer to all six of those questions.
These were the leading rates on one specific day and they will have moved since. That is rather the point.
Obvious, but worth stating plainly. A bank adviser can only recommend their own products. They are not being unhelpful. They are doing the job they are employed to do, which is a narrower job than the one you need doing. As a whole of market broker we look across lenders, including building societies and specialist lenders that do not advertise on television and that you would have no particular reason to have heard of.
A headline rate with a £1,499 arrangement fee can easily cost more over a two year fix than a slightly higher rate with no fee. On smaller loans the fee dominates. On larger ones the rate does. The only way to know is to run the total cost over the fixed period, including fees, valuation and legal costs, and compare like with like. That comparison is work, and it is work your bank has no reason to do for you against a competitor's product.
This matters far more than most people realise. Lenders differ enormously on how they treat self employed income, bonus and commission, contract work, recent job changes, credit blips, flats above shops, new build houses and dozens of other details. A perfectly good application can be declined by one lender and approved comfortably by another with nothing changing except the criteria it was assessed against.
A decline also leaves a footprint on your credit file. Getting the lender choice right first time is not just faster, it protects your file. If your income is not a simple monthly salary, our fee free mortgage advice pages set out how we approach it.
When a lender withdraws a product it often gives brokers very short notice, sometimes the same day. Knowing that a rate is about to disappear, and being able to submit before it does, is worth real money in a month like this one. You will not get that warning as a direct customer.
A mortgage offer can typically be held for several months. If rates fall between your application and your completion, we can usually look at whether a better deal is available and switch you to it. Nobody at your bank is monitoring that on your behalf.
Plenty are. We are not, and that is the whole idea behind this business.
We are paid a commission by the lender when your mortgage completes. That means our advice, our research across the market and our work managing your application through to offer costs you nothing. There is no arrangement fee to us, no fee for advice and no fee for the application.
The honest caveat, since I would rather say it than have you wonder: the commission a lender pays is broadly similar across lenders, which is deliberate, because it removes any incentive to steer you anywhere in particular. We recommend what fits. You can read more about how we work on our about page.
I am not going to pretend a broker is always the answer, because that would be daft and you would spot it.
If you are staying with your current lender on a product transfer, which means switching to a new rate with the same lender without moving the loan, going direct is often perfectly sensible. There is usually no new affordability assessment and no legal work. It is quick. We can still check whether the wider market beats what you have been offered, and often it does, but the direct route is not a trap in that scenario.
Equally, if your bank happens to be market leading for your exact situation on the day you apply, then that is where you should be. We would tell you so. It just is not something you can know without looking at the rest of the market first.
Moneyfacts reported on 7 September 2026 that the average two year fixed rate stood at 5.63% and the average five year at 5.68%, and estimated that a 0.25 percentage point increase adds roughly £38 a month to a typical mortgage. It also noted that securing a fixed rate rather than lapsing onto a lender's standard variable rate could be worth in the region of £230 a month.
That second figure is the one that should get your attention. Doing nothing when your deal ends is almost always the most expensive option available to you, because you fall onto the standard variable rate automatically. If your fixed deal ends within the next six months, our guide on what to do six months before your deal ends walks through the timing.
These are market averages rather than a quote, and your own figure will depend on your loan size, term and circumstances. You can get a rough idea of payments with our mortgage repayment calculator.
If your current deal ends within six months, start now rather than waiting for a better week. You can usually secure a rate well ahead of your end date, and if pricing improves in the meantime we can look at switching before completion. Waiting costs you the option.
If you are buying your first home, get the lender choice right before you offer on anything. The difference between lenders at 90% or 95% loan to value is significant, and criteria vary more at higher loan to value than anywhere else. Our first time buyer pages cover what lenders look for, and there is a separate guide on how much deposit you need.
If your bank has already made you an offer, keep it and let us check it. If it is genuinely the best thing available for your situation, we will tell you to take it. If it is not, you have lost nothing by asking.
If you have been putting it off, the cost of delay in a rising market is not theoretical. Rates went up twice at four major lenders in a fortnight this month.
We are based in Romsey in Hampshire and we look after clients across the UK, so where you live is not a constraint. If you would like someone to look at the whole market for you rather than one rate sheet, get in touch. There is no fee and no obligation, and you will get a straight answer either way.
No. Broker products are generally the same rates the lender offers directly, and some lenders release products exclusively through brokers that are not available on the high street at all. What changes is the number of lenders you are choosing between.
A full application leaves a footprint with any route you take. The advantage of advice is that we aim to apply once, to a lender whose criteria you meet, rather than making several applications and collecting several footprints.
It varies with the lender and the complexity of the case. A straightforward remortgage can move quickly, while a purchase depends on the chain, the valuation and the legal work. We will give you a realistic timeline at the outset rather than an optimistic one.
An offer is typically valid for several months. If the market improves meaningfully before you complete, we can look at whether switching to a better product makes sense and handle it for you. That is part of the service, not an extra.
Not for our mortgage advice. The lender pays us a commission when your mortgage completes. You will always be told clearly what we are paid and by whom before you commit to anything.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. The rates and figures quoted in this article come from the sources named on the dates given and will have changed since. They are illustrations rather than a quote or a recommendation, and any advice should be based on your own circumstances.
Get in touch early in your property journey, ideally before viewing or making an offer, to give yourself the best chance. Whether you’re exploring your borrowing capacity or ready to apply we’re here to help from the very beginning.
Ready to get started
Fee Free Mortgage Broker is a trading style of Alexander Southwell Mortgage Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (FRN 1011890).
Registered in England & Wales (Company No. 11772228).
Registered office: Nix Business Centre, 2 Park Court, Abbey Park Industrial Estate, Romsey, Southampton, SO51 9DH. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZA488146.
Information on this website is for general guidance only and is accurate at the time of writing. It does not constitute personalised financial advice. Mortgage criteria and lender policies can change; please speak to an FCA-authorised adviser for up-to-date advice tailored to your circumstances. Some buy-to-let mortgages are not regulated by the FCA.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.
© 2026 All rights reserved.
