The Chief Financial Ombudsman has warned that masses of homeowners could face future debt problems after taking out an interest-only mortgage.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent complaints committee who resolve consumer complaints and they have warned that people who took out interest-free mortgages a decade or so ago may not realise that their actual loan hasn’t been paid off – only the interest on it.

A Florida woman is suing a mortgage company in the US after claiming that their constant demands and threats of debt collection were responsible for the death of her husband.

Elizabeth Dianne McLeod claims that what she described as persistent demands and harassment from their mortgage company over debt repayments exasperated her husband Stanley’s heart condition, leading to his death in 1995.

Mortgages for customers with a 10% deposit have effectively vanished from the marketplace, according to research by the BBC.

The number of mortgage deals available with a 10% down payment has fallen to just 66, compared with 586 three months ago and 1,197 deals in February of this year.

The figures, collated by Moneyfacts, also show that 5% deposit deals have effectively been eradicated from the market, with just 35 such mortgage deals available.

The cost of borrowing on a credit card has increased in recent months despite reductions in interest rates, according to new research

Research by the financial information service Moneyfacts revealed that the typical rate of borrowing on a credit card had risen from 16.8% to 17.2% since the start of August, despite a 0.5% drop in the BoE base rate back in October.

The research found evidence of lenders increasing both interest rates and service fees for purchases, cash advances and benefits such as overseas use. Other cards had cut the length of their interest-free period.