What happens when your fixed-rate mortgage deal ends

A fixed-rate mortgage fixes your interest rate for a set period, commonly two or five years. What it does not do is end your mortgage. When the fixed period finishes you still owe the balance — what changes is the rate you pay on it, and usually not in your favour.

If you are looking for what happens when the mortgage itself is fully paid off at the end of its term, that is a different event with a different answer. See the guide on your mortgage term ending, linked at the foot of this page.

What happens if you do nothing

You are moved onto your lender’s standard variable rate, or SVR. Nobody asks your permission and nothing is cancelled — the direct debit simply collects a different amount.

The SVR is set by the lender at their discretion. It is not the Bank of England Bank Rate, it is not required to track it, and lenders can move it when the Bank does not. It is typically well above both the deal you just left and the deals currently on offer, which is why sitting on it is rarely the cheapest option.

For scale: the Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% on 30 July 2026, with the next decision due on 17 September 2026. Lender SVRs generally sit some way above Bank Rate, so the gap between an expiring fix and the SVR can be substantial. Check your own lender’s current SVR rather than assuming — they differ widely.

Because a mortgage is usually the largest payment in a household, a rate change here moves your monthly budget more than every subscription you own put together.

You can lock in a new deal six months early

This is the part most people miss. Under the Mortgage Charter, lenders can let you agree a new deal up to six months before your current one ends. Around 49 lenders have signed it, covering roughly 90% of the UK mortgage market.

It is not a one-way bet. You can request a better like-for-like deal from your lender right up until the new rate starts, if a better one becomes available. Rates are finalised about two weeks before the new term begins. In practice that means booking early protects you against rises without fully locking you out of falls.

Plenty of people use it: 880,635 borrowers locked into a new deal up to six months ahead of maturity in the first half of 2026 alone, according to FCA data.

Mortgage Charter — GOV.UK
Mortgage Charter uptake data — FCA
Current Bank Rate and decision dates — Bank of England

Product transfer or remortgage

A product transfer means taking a new deal from your existing lender. It is usually the simpler route — lighter paperwork, often no new valuation, and typically no affordability reassessment because you are not borrowing more.
A remortgage means moving to a different lender. It opens up the whole market and is often where the better rates are, but it involves a full application, affordability checks, and legal work.
A remortgage can take several weeks, so start it earlier than you think you need to. A product transfer can often be completed in days.
Which is better is genuinely case-by-case. Simplicity has real value if your income has changed, you have become self-employed, or passing fresh affordability checks is uncertain.

Comparing the two properly means looking at the total cost over the deal period — the rate, the arrangement fee, and any legal or valuation costs — not the headline rate alone. A lower rate with a large fee can cost more than a higher rate without one, particularly on a smaller balance.

Check the early repayment charge first

If you leave a fixed deal before it ends, an early repayment charge usually applies. It is commonly a percentage of the outstanding balance, and it often steps down each year of the fix. That charge is frequently what makes moving early uneconomic, so find the actual number in your mortgage offer rather than guessing at it.

Timing a new deal to start the day after the fix expires avoids the charge entirely, which is exactly what the six-month booking window is for.

What to do, and when

Six months before: find your deal end date, your outstanding balance, and your lender’s current SVR. Ask your lender what they will offer you on a product transfer.
Five to three months before: compare that offer against the wider market. A broker can see deals that are not on comparison sites; going direct avoids a broker fee. Both are legitimate.
Three months before: if remortgaging, get the application in. Legal work and valuations are what cause overruns.
Two weeks before: rates are finalised around this point under the Charter. Confirm the new rate has been applied.
After it starts: check the first payment that leaves your account matches what you agreed.

The date that matters

All of this hangs on one date buried in a mortgage offer agreed years earlier and rarely looked at since. Nothing reminds you it is approaching. The first signal most people get is a larger direct debit leaving their account, by which point they have already paid at least one month at the SVR.

Put the date somewhere that will tell you six months out, not the week it happens.