Officials at Bradford & Bingley's the MarketPlace have gone on the attack against offset mortgages as still "the privilege of the wealthy" because they are substantially more expensive than variable rate deals to the average borrower.
According to statistics from the MarketPlace, offset mortgages are “marketed indiscriminately as the answer to many borrowers’ financial needs” but their own calculations suggest just 7% of UK savers have the £25,000 in savings to make using an offset pricing worth their while. David Bitner, head of product operations at The MarketPlace, argues higher rate taxpayers with less than £25,000 in savings – which can then be offset against the mortgage rate - need at least 20% of their total mortgage balance in savings, increasing while basic rate taxpayers need as much as 40% if flexible offs...
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