Borrowers approaching the end of their mortgage offer period are likely to face a tougher decision than ever before. With lenders' standard interest rateshitting six-year highs of up to 7.25 per cent, it is now even more important that homeowners move swiftly on to a competitive new mortgage rate.

But as banks have been pushing up the initial costs of taking a mortgage - sometimes to as high as 3.5 per cent of the loan value - and the choice of deals on the market has exploded, making remortgaging add up is becoming something of a headache.