With a fixed rate mortgage your monthly repayments will be fixed for a period of time – usually two – five years. This rate won’t change in this time – regardless of interest rates. It will mean, however, that should you cancel your mortgage in this time that you might have to pay an early redemption fee – this can vary between lenders.

At the end of this period, the interest rate will revert to the lender’s standard variable rate, which means that it will no longer be fixed.

This mortgage is based on the lender’s standard variable rate which is affected by the Bank of Englands base rate. What this means is that it will be a rate that stands around 1.5% to 3.5% above the Bank of England’s base rate – but again this can vary and is controlled by the lender.

If you have a tracker-rate mortgage however, this will be the case.

A tracker rate mortgage is directly linked to the Bank of England’s base rate – so if this changes so will your mortgage. It can go up and down – and are particularly attractive if interest rates look to remain stable or fall during the deal period.

If you are able to adapt your payments in line with interest rate – and happy that it could change , you may feel this is the right mortgage for you. Tracker mortgages can last from two years to ten years and at the end of the period, will then revert to the lender’s standard variable rate.