Many people think it is the banks that are the bad guys but they are wrong – complacency is the secured mortgage borrower’s worst enemy.

You may have had a first charge and a second charge mortgage for some time now and might be paying your bills each month. For some people it might be tough, but most people manage to make ends meet at the end of the month.

But then you might be spending more on your credit cards, or you might be missing payments on things like unsecured loans or store card bills – letters pile through the door and things get missed. Things get left until a better time and some demands can be ignored.

You may wince every time you pop your credit card into the reader, but if you are given the green light by the shop you breathe a sigh of relief and forget about the state of your credit, preferring to enjoy your purchase.

You might have even moved over to your secured lender’s higher variable rate unwittingly. You might have begun to pay more each month than you previously have done and don’t even realise it – most of us have a dozen or more direct debits attached to our current accounts and let’s face it – how often do you even check your balance?

It is behavior like this that leads or debt, arrears and serious financial problems. If you are not on top of all your finances you may be amassing penalties and fines without even knowing about it. You may be sullying your credit score and making yourself black listed from future secured lending while you carry on, oblivious.

If you have a mortgage, a secured loan or any other financial responsibility you have to stay on top of things. That means regularly checking your current account, regularly checking your credit score and regularly making an assessment of your monthly budget. It means visiting your adviser regularly and allowing them to check your finances and it means always doing all you can to save each month.

Complacency is a borrower’s worst enemy. Only you can make sure your finances are as good as they can be – and if you don’t take that responsibility then it is you that will suffer in the long term.

To keep up with the latest news and comments on current financial affairs please visit the Secured Loan Blog.

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