Which mortgage is right for you ?

Flexible mortgages

Flexible mortgages are designed to give you more control over your finances, but look out there are varying degrees of flexibility. You should be able to overpay, borrow back overpayments, underpay and take payment holidays. You can walk away from a flexible deal with no penalties, and your interest is calculated daily. So as soon as you make a payment you start paying interest on a smaller loan amount

Tracker mortgages

There are three basic types of tracker mortgage: those which track the base rate for the whole life of the loan; those which run at an agreed differential to the base rate (either above or more rarely below it) for a set period before reverting to the standard variable rate

Discount mortgages

A discounted rate mortgage guarantees that you will pay a set amount below a lender's standard variable rate for a specified period of time. Whilst the standard variable rate goes up and down, the discount will remain fixed.

Capped mortgages

A capped rate mortgage puts a maximum limit on the payable rate you have to pay. However, should the lender's standard variable rate be below the level at which the cap is set, you get to pay that amount

Fixed rate mortgages

With a fixed rate mortgage, it sets the interest rate you will pay for a specified period. This will guarantee the amount that you pay for each month for the agreed period of time.

Cashback mortgages

A cashback mortgage offers you an amount, for example £200 up to £1000 as a flat amount, or it may be a percentage of the mortgage loan.

An example would be when a major provider offered a variable rate loan at 6.99% with 7% of the loan offered as cash back to you. With a loan of £100,000, this is a substantial sum of £7000, which will come in very useful when buying your new home.

Offset mortgages

Offset mortgages are where the interest on your mortgage is reduced by the funds in both your savings account and your current accounts. The more you have in your savings account, the less interest you pay on your mortgage, which helps you to repay your mortgage faster and more cheaply in the long term.

100% mortgages

Many first time buyers simply can't afford to get together a deposit of a sufficient size to meet the loan to value requirements on most mortgages.

If you are one such borrower then don't worry because help is at hand. One hundred percent mortgages can usually be offered with many types of mortgage rate options - fixed, capped or discounted rates for example.