UK Mortgages Online

Overall: ***
Mortgage Deals: ****
Mortgage Types: ****
Navigation: ***
Tools & Guides: **

Select an advisory or execution-only route. If you want to do the work yourself, click on Find a Mortgage in the left-hand frame. If you require the assistance of a mortgage consultant, choose Mortgage Advice instead.

Mortgage Types: Variable, discounted, fixed, capped, LIBOR; flexi, base rate tracker, CAM, Cat-Standard.

Mortgage Applications: Home purchase (first-time and home mover), remortgages, shared ownership, buy-to-let, right-to-buy, adverse credit, self-cert, 100% LTV.

Search by lender or via the Quick Search tool under Find a Mortgage. If you know what type of mortgage you want (e.g. discount, adverse credit etc.) you can circumvent Quick Search by hitting Mortgages Type button in the left-hand frame and selecting from a list of categories.

Quick Search is handy if you want to keep an open mind, and allows you to customise your search by sub-term and other filters like conditional insurances, cashback; arrangement/booking fees and early repayment charges

Results are listed in ascending order of initial rate, but can be reordered by mortgage type, initial concessionary period, APR, lender, stepped rate, lender's base rate and initial monthly payment. Click on Further Details for a payments schedule and subsequently on Full Product Details for the fine print.

You can tag a range of offerings for comparison (in pairs only) by rates, completion costs, compulsory insurances and total cost over 5 years.

General

UK Mortgages Online is a competent mortgage supermarket, with a wider than usual range of applications (e.g. shared ownership, 100% LTV).

Navigation is generally intuitive from the left-hand frame, but functionality is a trifle slow. The search engine and the interactive results tables are a little "sticky", occasionally doing an impression of a freeze, although the system never failed

A more serious shortcoming is the absence of a True-Cost column in the results tables. True- cost data is available in product comparisons but only over 5 years rather than over the sub-term chosen.

The remortgages calculator lists deals demanding lower monthly payments than your current mortgage but (like all comparable calculators on rival sites) fails to make a watertight case for a remortgage by neglecting to discount the monthly savings.

Finally, the colour scheme in greys and blue-greys is not so easy on my tired old eyes. What's wrong with a white background?