Borrowers flock to variable rates

The latest monthly index from John Charcol revealed that the proportion of variable rate take-up increased for the seventh consecutive month while the proportion of fixed rates fell below 20% for the first time since August 2008. Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said the best value lay in tracker rates at present. He adds: "With the average difference between the best fixed rates and the initial rate on the best trackers around 1.5% in favour of trackers, it will currently take a substantial rise in bank rate for a borrower who takes a tracker to be worse off tha...