Hence an applicant paying for a valuation and then not proceeding due to, say, a poor valuation, will not have their valuation fee refunded.

For more information about Free Valuations, contact one of our independent advisers.

To take advantage of the offer the mortgage applicant will normally need to use a firm of solicitors or licensed conveyancers nominated by the lender.

For more information about Free Legal Costs, contact one of our independent advisers.

The amount will vary from lender to lender and on the size of the mortgage.

The amounts can range from a flat fee e.g. £200 to a percentage of the loan eg. 3% of the loan.

Normally the cashback is offered as a package of benefits e.g. linked with a discount, but pure cashback products are not uncommon.

Mortgages offering a 5 or even 6% cashback can be found which would mean a borrower taking a £70,000 mortgage would receive £4,200 on completion (at 6%).

As you would expect lenders apply an Early Redemption Charge with cashback mortgages.

Typically a borrower will be locked-in for 5 to 7 years where a substantial cashback has been paid.

For more information about Cashback Mortgages, contact one of our independent advisers.

These mortgages take the benefits of the flexible mortgage and use the funds held in the current account to offset the interest eg. on a particular day a borrower has a mortgage balance of £50,000 and has £2,000 held in the current account.

The customer is charged mortgage interest on £48,000 i.e. the mortgage balance minus the positive balance held in the current account.

Some of the newer entrants into this sector are also linking savings accounts, credit cards and personal loans into the mix.

For a borrower wanting one home for their finances this is an attractive option.

For more information about Current Account Mortgages, contact one of our independent advisers.

Borrowers will normally have to build up a reserve through overpayments before being allowed to underpay or skip payments.

The main benefit of flexible mortgages is that many schemes are offered on a Daily or Monthly Interest Calculation basis (sometimes referred to as 'daily rest' or 'monthly rest').

Until the arrival of flexible mortgages most, if not all, UK lenders were charging interest on an annual basis which meant that borrowers making over-payments were not getting the benefit straight away because it could be a year before the capital was reduced by the over-payment.

Whereas, on a mortgage where the interest is being calculated on a daily basis, any over-payment reduces the mortgage balance immediately hence the borrower will be charged less interest from the next day.

Without going into detail to explain this feature the up-shot is that over-paying the mortgage on a monthly or regular basis, even by a relatively small amount, will reduce your mortgage term by years (hence saving payments).

Many flexible mortgages come without any Early Redemption Charge so the borrower is not 'locked-in' to any particular lender.

In addition the interest rate charged is often lower than the usual Standard Variable Rates charged by the other more 'traditional' mortgage lenders.

The flexible mortgage concept was imported from Australia so occasionally you may hear them referred to as 'Aussie style mortgages'.

For more information about Flexible Lifestyle Mortgage, contact one of our independent advisers.

For more information about Defaults, contact one of our independent advisers.

Once the ruling has taken place it will be recorded against the persons credit history and will appear every time a credit search is done for the next seven years.

If a person has a County Court Judgement against them it will have to be satisfied before they can get a mortgage, which is usually at a higher interest rate.

For more information about CCJ's, contact one of our independent advisers.

For more information about Bankruptcy, contact one of our independent advisers.

The amount is usually measured in either pounds or months.

For more information about Arrears, contact one of our independent advisers.

Poor credit history can include County Court Judgements (CCJs), bankruptcy, mortgage arrears or any late payments on credit arrangements.

For more information about Adverse Credit, contact one of our independent advisers.