On paper the Prudential's Equity Release plan looks like an excellent product with the main emphasis being on 'flexibility' which is sadly lacking in most equity Release plan at present. However the company has so far not yet announced what the interest rate will be apart from the stupid quote of 'it will be within 0.5% of the market leader'. So with Northern Rock's Equity Release scheme being the present best buy at 5.99% we would suggest that the Pru's interest rate will be 6.5% so making it very uncompetitive. Flexibility Versus Interest Rate The Pru's plan for Equity Release seems simple, offer the most flexible plan but at an uncompetitive rate. Whereas Northern Rock's Equity release scheme offers not as much flexibility but at the best interest rate. So which one, flexibility or interest rate is more desired? Flexibility is very important when dealing with all financial products but whenever you're borrowing money the interest rate is normally more critical. This is especially the case with Equity Release where interest is charged on interest and nothing ever gets paid back (until the property is sold). Remember that an Equity Release loan of £50k taken out today will be around £100k in 10 years, $200k in 20 years and a crazy $400k in 30 years.