First time buyers once again have the opportunity to get their mortgage deal without paying an up front application fee.

Since the credit crunch first bit, application fees have steadily risen to a typical level of £995 – although some lenders are charging as much as £1,498. It’s not as if the pain of paying these fees can be added to the mortgage as many insist they are paid upfront.

But now a small band of lenders have bucked the trend by offering fee free deals to first time buyers and well healed homeowners whom want to move up the housing ladder. However, they give with one hand and take with the other! You effectively pay for the fee free privilege by paying a higher rate of interest. In broad terms this means that anyone wanting to borrow £100,000 or less will be better off on a no fee deal even if the interest is a touch higher. But the bigger the mortgage, the more important it becomes to get a keen rate even if this means paying a fee up front.

If you want to check out some fee free deals, speak to Britannia, Northern Rock and Alliance & Leicester.

The lenders’ generosity is tempered however. If you want one of their fee free deals, you’re likely to have to stump up a big deposit – around 30%, and most of these deals apply to fixed rate mortgages.