Understanding mortgages with OUBS and MoneySavingExpert on OpenLearn

A new free course, Understanding mortgages, has been produced by The Open University Business School in collaboration with the hugely popular MoneySavingExpert (MSE).

The course, the first of six due to be made available over the coming months, recently launched on the OpenLearn digital platform. It was produced by Martin Upton, Senior Lecturer in Finance, and the consumer finance website founded and fronted by financial journalist Martin Lewis.

MSE was interested in working with OpenLearn, having seen the work we had already done on free personal financial education, with courses such as Managing My Money, over the last five years. This course fits with both the ideals of MSE and The Open University – it’s about financial awareness and education and aims to inform people to allow them to find their best deals. In just a few hours, people can learn more about mortgages, information which they can then apply to the specific products on offer.

Martin Upton
Senior Lecturer in Finance, OUBS

This short Understanding mortgages course (around two hours’ study time) explores the mortgage products available in the UK market – their interest rate and other characteristics – and examines the factors involved in making good choices from the product range. It explains why and how mortgages can be actively managed by borrowers through such options as overpaying, offsetting and remortgaging.

The course also examines the mortgages from the viewpoint of the lenders, including the factors that affect their decisions about making mortgage advances.

The aim is to make those completing the course not only more knowledgeable about the mortgage market but also more confident about making smart decisions about one of the most important areas of personal finance.

The course was featured on the MSE newsletter on Tuesday 22 October, received by more than 13 million people, as its ‘campaign of the week’. More than 6,000 people visited the course within just a few hours – with more than 80 completing it within 24 hours!

View the Understanding mortgages free course on OpenLearn