The best place to start looking for affordable mortgage rates is with the bank that you currently bank with. Sometimes they are willing to offer mortgages to you at lower rates than normal especially if you have been timely on making payments on any other loans you have taken out with them.

However if you feel that the mortgage rates they are offering are no different then of course you should look at going to another bank or to a company that offers mortgage loans instead. Sometimes these types of institutes are willing to offer a lower rate on the loan simply because they want to get your business. But be prepared when getting your mortgage from another bank that you may be required to transfer your other accounts to them as well.

Of course if they do offer you a mortgage at a lower rate now you can go back to your own bank to see if they will match it. Again they may be more willing to do this especially if they think that they are likely to lose all of your business.

If you have ever had a credit card, loan or mortgage in the past there is a very good chance that you may have been paying payment protection insurance to your bank.

Payment protection insurance was in most cases completely unnecessary and it would appear that most high street banks have been guilty of mis selling this to their customers.

The good news is that you can get your money back. Back from the banks that diddled you in the first place. You can do this yourself or get somebody else to do it for you, paying them a commission out of your your claim.

Claims are being made and the financial services authorities have actually told the banks to speed up the payout of claims to the public. So find out if you able to claim – there’s a good chance you will be able to.

Find out if you can claim back ppi here.

Claims can take several month to process, and will involve having to request statements from your bank, and filling out some online forms. Many people are getting thousands of pounds back this way.