Coming off a fixed rate? Start six months before you think you need to

In all my time arranging mortgages, no question came up more often. It's a good question, and it deserves a proper answer. The trouble is that a mortgage on its own can only give you half of one.

A mortgage broker can tell you exactly what an overpayment would do to your loan, down to the month it would come off the term. Whether that money is better off there than somewhere else is a different matter. That depends on your pension, your tax position, whether you've used your ISA allowance, and the age you hope to stop working. None of it sits inside a broker's remit. I could see the mortgage clearly. The rest of the house was behind a closed door, and it wasn't mine to open.

That's one of the reasons I joined Ginkgo – as our first dedicated mortgage and protection adviser. Now the door is open. The mortgage is one piece of something I can see all of, and the people who know the rest of your picture are a few feet away in our office at Blackheath Standard – my new working home.

Why this is worth thinking about now

Around a million UK households come off a five-year fixed rate during 2026.¹ Most of those deals were signed in 2021, when a rate starting with a two was unremarkable. As at 21 July 2026, two- and five-year fixes averaged above 5.5%.² On a £200,000 loan, that difference could work out at roughly £250 a month.³ Those are market averages rather than quotes – your own number depends on your balance, your term and your lender.
Most people I've worked with left the decision to the final month of their deal. That's understandable, because nothing feels urgent until the letter arrives. But a month isn't long enough to weigh the options properly, and a payment change of that size deserves more room.

What I'd want you to know before your fix ends

A fixed rate ending is worth a little preparation, and the first part of that is timing. Start earlier than feels necessary. Many lenders will hold a new rate for you up to six months before your current deal ends. If rates fall in the meantime you can usually take the better one, and if they rise you've already fixed your ceiling. It's one of the few decisions in this business where looking early costs you nothing and leaving it could cost you a good deal.

There are two routes out of a fix, and they aren't the same thing. A product transfer keeps you with your existing lender on a new rate: quicker, less paperwork, and usually no affordability check. A remortgage moves you elsewhere, which takes longer and means a full affordability assessment, though for some borrowers it works out cheaper across the term. Neither is automatically right. Lenders' affordability rules have shifted since 2021, so a sum that worked comfortably then can look different now.

Doing nothing is a decision too, and usually the priciest one. When a fix ends the mortgage reverts to the lender's standard variable rate, and as at August 2026 those averaged over 7%.⁴ It's the mortgage version of an out-of-contract mobile phone. Nothing has changed except the amount leaving your account each month.

Then there are the questions a rate comparison can't reach. Whether it's a bonus, an inheritance or an insurance payout, would an overpayment do more for you than the same money going into a pension? If you're sitting on a large cash balance, could an offset arrangement suit you better? Does the term you signed up to still fit the age you want to finish work? For those, the mortgage is only half the answer. The other half sits with your adviser, whether that's Daren, Cat or Rachael, and now I can turn round and ask them.

The same questions, one generation along

Very little of this stays inside one household. Adult children buying a first home meet the same decisions with far less to go on, and those a few years further in are reaching the end of a first fix of their own.

If you're a parent helping with a deposit, you'll have a set of questions all of your own. Is it a gift or a loan, and does the lender need to be told which? Would a joint borrower sole proprietor arrangement work, where you go on the mortgage but not on the deeds? Each route has different consequences for tax, for who owns what, and for what happens if circumstances change later on. All of them are easier to sort out before the money moves than after.

Before you go

If a fixed rate ends in the next twelve months – yours, your child's, a friend or neighbour's – a conversation now costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You don't have to have made your mind up first. And if it turns out the real question was never about the mortgage at all, so much the better. I know exactly whose desk to walk to.

Angela Robert, Mortgage and Protection Adviser, Ginkgo Financial

¹ FCA data obtained by Compare the Market: 971,105 five-year fixed mortgages taken out in 2021. ² Moneyfacts average two-year (5.54%) and five-year (5.57%) fixed rates, 21 July 2026. ³ Ginkgo calculation: £200,000 repayment mortgage over 25 years at 2.75%, remortgaged after five years at the Moneyfacts average five-year fixed rate of 5.57% over the remaining 20-year term. ⁴ Moneyfacts average standard variable rate, 7.13%, August 2026.