Daily Interest: Interest applied on a daily basis rather than the regular monthly time frame.
Debt: Money owed to lender.
Debt Consolidation: The replacement of a number of existing loans with a single loan from a new lender. This has the effect of reducing monthly payments by spreading out the consolidated loan repayments over a longer period of time, and reducing the interest rate being charged.
Debt-To-Income Ratio: A method used by lenders to establish if a borrower is qualified to apply for a mortgage or loan.
Deed: The document that proves ownership of a property.
Deed of Covenant: The document detailing the terms of a covenant (a binding agreement), which may be imposed by a lender to restrict certain activities, such as sub-letting or the use of a house for commercial purposes.
Deed of Proxy: A document empowering one individual to manage the financial and legal affairs of another individual.
Deeds Release Fee: The fee charged by the lender for releasing the deeds of a mortgaged property and returning them to the owner, or his solicitor – usually when the mortgage has been repaid.
Default: A payment or a series of payments that have been missed.
Default Notice: A letter served by a creditor to a borrower to state that a credit agreement has been breached, and that action must be taken by the borrower to prevent the creditor seeking repayment through a County Court Judgement.
Deferral Period: A time period over which no loan repayments need to be made. This is particularly common with student and graduate loans, to enable studies to be finished, before having to make the repayments.
Deferred Interest: A type of loan where some or all of the interest owed by the borrower is added to the total sum outstanding. This causes the borrower to owe more money than was originally borrowed.
Delinquency: Failure to make payments at the agreed time.
Delinquent Loan: A loan where the borrower has fallen behind on payments. If payments are not brought up to date within a set time frame the lender may foreclose on the loan.
Dependant: An individual who depends on another individual or individuals for financial support.
Direct Debit: A method of making automatic payments from a current account. Direct debits may be made at fixed intervals, for example monthly (credit card), or quarterly (gas bill), and they may be for fixed or variable amounts of money.
Direct Lenders: Lenders who operate through use of call centres, mailing houses, or internet based operations, instead of an expensive high street branch-based network.
Disbursements: Search fees, land registration, stamp duties are all examples of disbursements.
Discharged Bankrupt: An individual whose period of bankruptcy has ended.
Discharged CCJ: A county court judgement that has been paid.
Disclaimer: Any written notice designed to discharge liability of a company, for providing inaccurate information in a leaflet.
Discount Mortgages: This type of mortgage incorporate a discount to the lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR), but usually only for a set period of time.
Discount Period: Time period in which reduced loan repayments are offered.
Discount Purchase Price: The price of a property which has been reduced below the open-market value, such as in the case of a right-to-buy purchase or a builder’s discount. Under right to buy legislation, properties are not offered at the open market value, but at a discount. If the property is resold within a three-year period, some or all of the discount will have to be repaid.
Discount Rate: A mortgage interest rate that is lower than the current normal standard variable rate, but only for a limited period of time. The discount rate is a fixed percentage reduction to the lender’s normal variable rate e.g. 1.50% discount for 2 years.