Choosing a Mortgage

Long gone are the days when you could only get a mortgage if you had dutifully saved with the same financial institution for a number of years, and everyone paid pretty much the same mortgage interest rate. Nowadays, lenders compete with each other to attract business with a constant stream of new deals for both first-time buyers and borrowers looking to switch mortgages, resulting in hundreds of mortgage deals to choose from.

These's also a much wider range of mortgage products to choose from; whilst the majority are simply variations on the traditional repayment or interest-only mortgages, there's now options to offset your savings against your mortgage loan, and flexible mortgages that let you underpay, overpay or even take a payment holiday. Once you've chosen your mortgage product, you'll also need to select your interest rate option - will you go for a fixed rate, capped rate or variable?

In this section, we take a look at all the issues that surround finding the right mortgage, along with some advice on what to do if you have difficulty paying, and how to handle any complaints you might have.