A new survey suggests that almost half a million Britons are set to miss a mortgage payment in the next six months 

AI banking platform Eligible says it’s conducted a survey suggesting that 492,000 mortgage holders are set to miss a payment in the next six months while 670,000 mortgage holders have already missed a payment in the past 12 months.

It extrapolates its survey to claim that 5,417,000 Brits cite mortgage payments as a significant cause of financial-related stress; and 1,340,000 Brits do not understand the terms of their mortgage – because they don’t communicate with their lender.

Eligible says some 1.6m mortgage holders are expected to renegotiate their deal by the end of year.
According to Eligible, the onus is increasingly shifting onto banks to provide tailored and proactive real-time communication with their customers, particularly in light of the FCA’s introduction of Consumer Duty, which came into effect last summer. 

Zahra Hassan, co-founder of Eligible, comments: “The fundamental problem is that mortgages are a financial product that customers take out only once every 3-5 years. This means that they aren’t regularly engaging with their mortgage and aren’t in the loop of what all their options are.
 
“In a broader sense, rising interest rates, coupled with increased energy and living costs, heighten vulnerability to default. However, the key factor that pushes someone from financial strain to actual default is their lack of awareness about the array of options that their bank could have offered to temporarily ease their financial burden, particularly on their largest financial obligation – their mortgage.
 
“What’s needed – and what we’re doing at Eligible – is an active two-way dialogue, and AI-powered systems like Eligible facilitate this by initiating interactions with customers and monitoring their responses to gather insights. For instance, we proactively send educational content to customers to assess their anxiety levels and their understanding of their current financial products. Based on this information, we can fine-tune our approach by crafting more personalised educational content and adjusting our tone to be softer, supportive, and empathetic. This way, borrowers can better appreciate that lenders are here to assist them.”