Remember that in the UK there are 3 main credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax and CallCredit. All 3 use different methods to produce a credit score and one or all may be consulted by a lender about your credit-worthiness.

It therefore makes more sense to check your score – and file – for all 3 so you have a complete picture of how your profile is viewed and can take any necessary steps to keep your credit score as high as you can.

You have to take out a repayment mortgage if you are a residential home buyer. You are granted a mortgage loan normally conditional on your saving a deposit of a minimum of 10% of the purchase price (in certain circumstances a lower percentage or even no deposit may be acceptable) and you commit to making regular monthly repayments over an agreed term, frequently 25 years, during which you pay back the loan.

For each payment you make, a portion of the money goes toward paying the interest on the loan and the rest goes towards paying down the capital. You accumulate more of the underlying capital over time so the interest element becomes less and the portion devoted to paying off the principal increases.

The biggest advantage of a repayment mortgage is that as long as you make all the payments, you can rest assured that at the end of the term you'll own the full equity of your property. This is not guaranteed to be the case with an interest-only mortgage; these mortgages are now only open to commercial customers.