More borrowers 'missing payments'

Rising interest rates are causing borrowers on bad credit mortgages and other deals to miss their repayments, with 460,000 monthly payments overlooked in the last six months, according to MoneyExpert.com.

Each month is seeing 77,000 mortgage borrowers miss payments, research by the site shows.

This compares to a study in January this year which suggested that 36,000 payments were missed every month in 2006.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, said: "Missing a mortgage payment is a real signal of distress and anyone in such dire straits needs to address the issue as soon as possible.

"We are a long way from the dark days of the late 1980s and early 1990s when more than a million lost their homes but many are feeling the strain."

Mr Gardner urged any borrowers who have missed payments on their mortgages to speak to their lender about the situation.

According to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders for the end of 2006, around 59,000 mortgages were three to six months in arrears.

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