Pocket money... the mortgage war hots up

⬤ The cheapest mortgage rates have dropped to their lowest since September as a price war between lenders heats up. Platform (part of the Co-op Bank) has launched a five-year fixed rate of 3.75%. The deal is aimed at wealthier borrowers, with a minimum loan size of £400,000 and a £1,999 set-up fee, says Rachel Mortimer in The Telegraph.

Platform is the seventh lender to reduce rates on fiveyear fixed mortgages below 4% in the past two weeks. “Repeated repricing is driving rates down gradually and more lenders are joining the sub-4% club,” David Hollingworth from mortgage broker L&C tells The Telegraph. The average five-year fix has dropped from a high of 6.51% in October to 5.05% today, while the typical two-year rate has dropped from 6.65% to 5.34%.

⬤ App-based bank Chase – which is part of US giant JP Morgan Chase – has improved the cashback and interest on its current account, says Vaishali Varu on The Money Edit. Chase has paid 1% on most debit card spending (some exclusions apply) since early 2022. From 1 April this will be extended for at least another 12 months, although customers will now have to pay in £500 per month and cashback will be capped at £15 per month. The bank will also start to pay 1% interest on current account balances from the same date.

Chase has also announced plans for several additional services. These include joining the current account switch service, integrating the Nutmeg digital wealth manager that it bought in 2021 into the Chase app, and launching a credit card.

⬤ The amount of money that Hargreaves Lansdown makes from clients’ cash has soared tenfold in a year, thanks to higher interest rates, says

Ali Hussain in The Times. Investment platforms put cash on deposit at banks, keeping the gap between what they get and the rates that they pay.

The Bank of England base rate is now 4%, but HL, Britain’s largest platform, pays clients 1% on the first £9,999 in an Isa, rising in steps to 2% on sums over £100,000. The equivalent figures in a Sipp are 1.7% and 2.3%. Rivals such as AJ Bell and Interactive Investor pay similar rates. All three provide a service to place cash in fixedrate deposits with banks and building societies, but these don’t allow instant access.