What reverting actually means
When a fixed rate ends and you take no action, the mortgage does not stop. It reverts. The loan stays the same, the term stays the same, and the interest rate switches to your lender's Standard Variable Rate. The market average in September 2026 was 7.13%.
That is not a penalty rate. It is simply what a lender charges once no product is attached to the loan, and it is the most expensive rate in the mortgage market. Notice how stable it is: three separate sources in the same September week reported average two-year fixes anywhere from 5.73% to 5.84%, because lenders were repricing daily. All three reported the average SVR as exactly 7.13%. Fixed rates move with the swap market. Standard Variable Rates move when a lender decides they should.
Your own lender's SVR, not the average
It is on your lender's website, usually under mortgage rates or existing customers, and it is on the letter the lender must send you before your fix expires. It may be well above or well below 7.13%. Use yours, not the average.
The door you think is locked
A rate switch with your existing lender, with no additional borrowing, is exempt from the affordability assessment under FCA rule MCOB 11.6.3R, and it is a Mortgage Charter commitment. Negative equity, arrears, a halved income, a refusal from every other lender: none of it stops a product transfer. The people who most need a new deal are the ones most likely to believe they cannot get one.
And the thing nobody tells you
81% of refinancing in the second quarter of 2026 was a product transfer, and a product transfer can be sold execution-only: no advice, no suitability assessment. Your lender must show you every product you are eligible for. It does not have to tell you which is best, or that another lender is cheaper.
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