A higher rate of interest means a borrower will end up paying a larger amount of interest to the lender throughout the mortgage term. This brings up a couple points. It’s important for a borrower to have a strategy on mortgage prepayment. If a borrower prepays their mortgage they are automatically paying the balance down and saving money on interest. Secondly, interest rates have been historically low for the last couple of years. If interest rates rise borrowers may be renewing their mortgage in a higher rate environment. This means higher monthly payments with less of the payment going towards paying the mortgage down and more money going to the lender.