Call over UK's unclear mortgage fees BRITISH home owners are at risk of paying over the odds for their mortgage due to the vast array of "complex and unclear" fees and charges attached to such deals, consumer group Which? says. MORE than 40 different names for fees and charges across the market were found by Which?, including "administration fees," "application fees," "assessment fees," "arrangement fees," "booking fees," "product fees," "reservation fees," "lenders' fees," "completion fees" and "mortgage questionnaire fees." It said that since 2009, the year the Bank of England base rate fell to its historic 0.5 per cent low, the average arrangement fee cost had almost doubled, from STG878 ($A1602.63) to STG1588. Which? wants Chancellor George Osborne to use his forthcoming Autumn Statement to make it easier for people to find the best mortgage deal by making overall costs clearer. The consumer group, which is running a "stop sneaky fees and charges" campaign, said the range of fees attached to mortgages made it hard for borrowers to compare the total cost with other deals. Its research had found that, for example, someone borrowing STG100,000 over two years could potentially save about STG1500 if they took the full set-up fees into account rather than just concentrating on the deal with the lowest rate. Which? said lenders often used different names for similar fees - for example a booking fee could also be called a reservation fee or an application fee. It also found a wide variation between lenders in the cost of the same fees, which it said suggested that fees did not always reflect the true cost incurred by the lender. Which? said that with mortgage repayments being the biggest monthly expense for most homeowners, and with expectations that interest rates would rise next year, the Chancellor should use his Autumn Statement to make it easier for people to find the best mortgage deal, working with regulators, the industry and consumer groups. The call comes when mortgage lenders have been slashing rates to attract borrowers and keep existing ones as they look to meet end-of-year targets. Financial information website Moneyfacts reported last week that the number of fixed-rate mortgages had increased by 12.5 per cent since the start of September. Moneyfacts suggested lenders were being driven to improve their rates as they anticipated there would be a flurry of people looking to move off standard variable rates to a fixed deal to protect against interest rates rising.