Yorkshire Building Society has launched the cheapest 10-year fixed rate mortgage on the market at 4.99%. To access the deal, you have to have at least a 25% deposit – or own 25% of your home – and you would have to pay a fee of £995.

With this deal, you would pay for all of your legal fees and valuation costs. But if you wanted to avoid paying these, then you could go instead for its 5.09% rate – which gives you £250 as well if you are moving home. But you should check how much your fees would actually cost you, as on a high value mortgage, you could find you are paying far more in interest over the years than you are spending in fees initially.

Yorkshire has already got one of the best three-year fixes too, offering a market-leading 3.89%, again with a £995 fee. However, Chelsea Building Society has a three-year fix at 3.69%, again for 75% loan-to-value (LTV). The arrangement fee is lower than Yorkshire’s too, at £495, and you can get this deal on loans up to £500,000.

To fix or track? That is the question

However, with interest rates held at their record low of 0.5% for the 15^th consecutive month by the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, many people are split between whether they should fix their rates or take a tracker. The latter will keep their payments lower for now, but you risk losing out if rates start to rise.

For example, First Direct’s tracker is currently at 2.29%, with a crazy low booking fee of £99, with free legal fees, and no redemption charge. The catch? You have to own at least 65% of the property you want to mortgage or remortgage.

Split the difference

However, HSBC, the parent of First Direct, has a product that will solve the problem – you can literally fix part of your mortgage and track the other on its Split Loan Mortgage, so you are getting the best – or perhaps the worst, depending on how interest rates move – of both worlds.

You can fix at least 25% of your mortgage for up to seven years, and the longer the fix the higher the rate.

For example, for a 70% LTV, the two-year fix and starting tracker rate is 2.49% if you fix 25% of the loan and track 75%. Take that up to a 50:50 split – which most customers are going for, according to the bank – and the rate for each part goes up to 2.69%, rising again to 2.99% if you want to fix 75% of your loan. At 80% LTVs the rates start at 2.99% on a 25%/75% fix to tracker split.

If you want to fix your rate for five years, the HSBC split rates would start at 4.79%, with an arrangement fee of £999.

However, without a doubt the best way to be sure you are getting the right mortgage for you is to speak to a mortgage broker who can search the entire market for you.

Gilt yields are to blame, as lenders price their mortgages in line with gilt yields, and they are going up. Research suggests they are likely to rise by 0.75 percentage points in the wake of the hung Parliament – and could go higher if inflation is not kept under control.

The average mortgage borrower with a loan of £118,000 would see their payments rise by £624 a year according to figures from easyroommate.co.uk, and it would be even more if your loan was higher. If you are earning the national average wage of £25,800, that is like increasing your income tax to 23%.

Two-Year Fixed Rates

The best rate you can get at the moment on a two-year fix is with HSBC at 2.99%, and this product will allow you to borrow up to 70% of the value of your property. The redemption penalty is 2% then 1% of the amount you repay in the first and second year of the deal. This has a booking fee of £999, and you can borrow up to £250,000. There is no flexibility on this deal though, you cannot make overpayments or underpayments.

Mansfield Building Society does allow overpayments on its two-year fix, which has a rate of 3.09%, then reverts to its standard variable rate (SVR), currently 5.59%. This has an arrangement fee of £999, but it will refund your valuation fees up to £400, and you can borrow up to 75% of the value of the property. The early redemption penalty for both years of the deal is 2% of the amount you borrowed.

Five-Year Fixed Rates

If you want to be sure of your payments for longer, there are some decent five-year fixes around. The Co-operative Bank is offering 4.49% fixed until August 31, 2015, and you can borrow up to 75% of the value of the property. The arrangement fee is £849, and the booking fee is £150. Your redemption penalties are 5/4/3/2/1% of the outstanding balance in each of the years of the fix respectively. On this deal, you can borrow up to £1m if you want to, and it is flexible. You can make overpayments, underpayments, pay off lump sums and take payment holidays.

Chelsea Building Society is offering 4.59% fixed for five years, and you can borrow up to £500,000 on this deal. The maximum loan-to-value is 75%, and the arrangement fee is £995. The early repayment charge is a flat 4% of the sum repaid for each year of the fixed rate. This deal is less flexible, but you can make overpayments if you want to.

Virgin Money’s Charity Credit Card IS a good idea – if you pay off your balance in full every month and don’t plan to transfer a balance to the card. If you’re not borrowing, the 1 per cent cashback on your spending, which includes a Gift Aid boost of 20p per pound donated, is a pretty good deal. For a non-borrower, even this can be beaten by a card giving more than 0.8% cashback, making your own donations and ensuring you’re taking advantage of Gift Aid.

If you borrow get a less expensive card and donate the money yourself

With a typical rate of 12.9 per cent APR (variable) and a lifetime balance transfer rate of 8.9 per cent, you can do a lot better by getting a different card if you ever plan to borrow on the card and giving the money you are saving to charity.

This card charges a 2 per cent balance transfer fee if the transfer is made within 60 days of the account opening, and a 2.98 per cent fee applies otherwise.

Providing you are within your credit limits, you would not pay interest on the balance you had on the Barclaycard Platinum card in the first 15 months from your balance transfer. But you would have to pay £87 to transfer a £3,000 balance.

You would also not pay any interest for the first three months on purchases, so you would be saving some serious money in interest. You and/or your charity would be better off if you gave the saving in interest rather than the cashback you’d send via the Virgin Charity Card.

Charity cards with better deals – if you must

If you really want to give this way, and plan to borrow on the card, there are some better charity credit card options, providing you are interested in giving to these charities: National Trust, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, British Heart Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund.

The National Trust credit card has 0 per cent interest on balance transfers for 12 months – you pay a 3 per cent fee for the privilege – and 0 per cent on purchases for three months.

The World Wildlife Fund card, British Heart Foundation card and Breakthrough Breast Cancer card offer the same deal.

Lose the card as soon as you start paying interest

As soon as you start paying interest though, ditch these cards and get another 0 per cent deal, and give the money you would have paid in interest to your chosen charity.

Don’t be caught out though, if you are paying more in interest than you are getting in rewards, these cards cost you money. You are then just playing into the hands of the credit card companies.

If you can afford to pay off your bill each month before interest, then it doesn’t matter whether you are on the high street or the superhighway, you can get money back for splashing the cash. Hundreds of pounds a year can be earned by choosing the right card but there are pitfalls to watch for. So here are some top tips on getting the most out of cashback:

1. 1. Check the deal carefully

You need to choose a card that will reward you in the way you want. American Express Platinum is the highest paying cashback card right now, is giving you £5 on every £100 you spend for the first three months. The most you can get back is £100, and after the three months the cashback is tiered up to 1.25 per cent. There is no limit on what you can earn after that.

If you are a frequent traveller, then the British Airways American Express Credit Card will give you a bonus of 1,000 BA Miles if you spend £500 within the first three months. These are just two examples, so you need to work out which would give you the biggest benefit before signing up.

Some of the cards, such as the Halifax All in One Card, is at 0 per cent interest for 9 months on balance transfers and purchases, so you could use this to really boost your earnings if you wanted.

By using this card for general spending, paying off the minimum on the card and then putting the cash you would have spent into a high interest account instead, you are making more money on your spending.

Keep that to pay off the bill before the 0 per cent deal ends though, otherwise the interest will build up significantly.

1. 2. Make sure you can always pay off your spending before being charged interest

This is vital, otherwise you are costing yourself money rather than earning it. Spending money on your card to get rewards or cashback is a false economy. You would probably end up paying more in interest on a card debt than you would gain in rewards, so ultimately you would lose out.

1. 3. Watch out for pitfalls

While the Amex Platinum is a winner if you qualify, there are plenty of hoops to go through. You have to be earning at least £30,000 a year, have no history of bad debt, and you have to spend more than £3,000 a year on the card. If not, you have to pay Amex £20 for the privilege of having it.

The AA Credit Card is a great option for anyone spending regularly on fuel or motoring costs, as it offers two points for every £1 spent on motoring goods, but half that for all other spending. So if you hardly ever buy anything car related, you should choose a card that offers rewards for something you need and want to be paying for.

4. Get  a joint card

Living with a partner or spouse? If you trust them, then double your benefits by getting a joint card that you can both spend on. The more you spend on the card, the more you get back, so make it work as hard as you can.

If there is a short-term deal offering a bigger benefit, like on the BA Credit Card or the BMI American Express Card from MBNA then you can always get one partner to apply for the card with the other as a second card holder, and then reverse the process when the deal term is finished on the first card – assuming it still applies – so you get double bubble.

After that, use the one card for both to spend on to maximise the reward.

5. Use the card for all your spending

To get the most out of the cashback or rewards scheme, use the card for all your spending. You will maximise your cash rewards, and get legal protection on all of the goods and services you buy.

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, if you buy something on the high street,  online or even abroad with a credit card and something goes wrong, the card issuer is jointly liable with the company that sold you the goods or service to put things right.

You have to buy something worth more than £100 and it does not matter where you buy it from. If you buy some clothes from an internet store overseas and they do not turn up, or your airline goes bust before your holiday, you can claim for the loss against your credit card provider.

You do not get this protection on a debit card, or by paying with cash or cheque, so think before you spend.