Maybe I could break them down into sub-groups - kept out of arrears with difficulty or overcharge didn't affect them.
@Brendan Burgess I am not sure of too many people who would not be affected by being charged between 2% and 3.5% higher interest rates. Very high earners would most likely have higher mortgages, especially if they are boom time as a lot of people extended themselves. Chances are everyone would be impacted.
Lets say couple E is relatively comfortable, has a mortgage of say 400k, 2 kids and combined income of 200k. They have paid 500 euro a month extra on the mortgage - so over 8 years this is ~50k. But they managed to pay it, save some money, go on holidays, upgrade the car etc.
BUT, they may have done things differently for the last 8 years if they had not had to pay the money. Maybe one of them would have taken a VL package being offered at work to allow them spend more time at home with the family. Maybe one of them would have gone to a 3 or 4 day week to ensure a better work-life balance; maybe they would have done some further education at some stage along the way; maybe they would have taken a once in a lifetime 2 month break in the Australia with the kids; maybe they would have pumped that extra money into a pension fund and be in a much better position to retire early - who knows!
Or maybe they went further and because they were paying 4.5%, they actually overpaid the mortgage further to try and reduce the burden of the debt. So instead of being down 50k, they are actually down 100k (cashflow wise).
Or maybe its as silly as deciding they could not justify spending 5-7k on to go on the Lions Tour in 2013 to relive the memories with some good friends from when they were backpacking in Australia in 2001 and now one of those friends has passed away so they will never get that chance again !
Or maybe its as nasty as knowing they have to stay in a job they hate, with a boss who bullies them/harasses them, as they know they need the high paying job to keep the ship afloat, and the mental health issues that has resulted over the years from this entrapment.
Either way, I cannot see any scenario where someone would not be impacted by this, no matter how wealthy. I agree, there are degrees of impact and they are probably the least impacted financially - but who knows what other non-financial impacts it may have had on them over the years, and these are the hardest to quantify.