Complaint
A viewer complained that the programme offered a misleading comparison between two mortgage products, one of which involved a mortgage arrangement fee, by calculating the cost of the fee in terms of the two-year period for which the product’s interest rate was fixed, rather than in terms of the whole duration of the mortgage. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú’s editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
While taking the complainant’s point that the different bases of calculation would produce different results, the ECU noted that both the products featured by the programme offered two-year fixed rates, and that the programme had set out to compare their costs over the two-year fixed period. The ECU considered this a legitimate approach, costs beyond that period being dependent on fluctuations in interest rates and lenders’ responses to them, and consequently found no inaccuracy.
Not upheld