Whether you're a first-time buyer, moving home or staying put and remortgaging, this web page should help you on your way. The jargon buster will help make the mortgage terminology clearer for you.

A mortgage is like any other kind of loan " you borrow money, and you pay it back with interest over a period of time. But it has one key difference: it's secured against your home. So if for any reason you can't repay it, the lender can sell your home to recover their money.

Generally buy-to-let mortgages are not regulated at present. This means you may have less protection if things go wrong with a buy-to-let mortgage. Buying a property to let is a long-term investment which you hope will generate an income from rents and a capital gain when you sell the property. There is no guarantee that you'll make a profit on your investment.

• You take out a loan based on how much you can afford and the value of the property, for a length of time agreed between you and the lender.
• You are charged interest on the loan, usually based on the Bank of England base rate, which is reviewed monthly.
• You pay the mortgage back in one of two ways, repayment or interest-only.
• You can choose different deals for your interest rate, such as fixed or discounted.
• If you've had financial problems in the past and are finding it difficult to get a mortgage, then it may be worth asking an Independant Financial Advisor to try and find the right scheme for your circumstances.

• repayment
• interest-only
• a combination of the two

You will need to decide which is best for you.

Every month, your payments to the lender go towards reducing the amount you owe as well as paying the interest they charge. So each month you're paying off a small part of your mortgage.

The pros: It's a simple, clear approach - you can see your loan getting smaller.

The cons: In the early years your payments will be mainly interest, so if you want to repay the mortgage or move house in the early years, you'll find that the amount you owe won't have gone down by very much.

As the name suggests, your monthly payment only pays the interest charges on your loan - you're not actually reducing the loan itself. This is why it's very important you arrange some other way to repay the loan at the end of the term; for example, through an investment or savings plan.

If you choose this option you will need to check that your investment or savings plan grows accordingly, so that at the end of the term you'll have enough money to pay off the loan. If it doesn't grow as planned, you will have a shortfall and you'll need to think about ways of making this up.

The pros: Because you're only paying off the interest, and not the loan itself, your monthly payments will be lower.

The cons: That debt is not going to go away. Throughout the life of the mortgage, you'll need to check your investment or savings plan is on track to repay your loan at the end of the term. If you can't repay it at the end of the term you could lose your home.

So, choosing a repayment or interest-only mortgage is one decision. The other will be to choose the interest-rate deal.

For most of us, buying our home is the biggest financial decision we ever make. The good news is that you'll find plenty of help available, although you need to be clear what sort of help you're being offered. Take care to shop around and ensure that you are getting the sort of help you need.

Whatever the level of help you need, always make sure that the firm you're dealing with is on the FSA Register and is allowed to sell or advise on mortgages before handing over your money. If they aren't regulated by us and things go wrong, you won't have access to complaints and compensation procedures.

Use the FSA's impartial tables to compare similar financial products from different companies. The tables are comprehensive, but a few companies have chosen not to provide the FSA with data, these are detailed on the tables.

The tables are updated every working day and are as accurate as we can make them. But you should always check the details with the provider or an adviser before deciding to buy.

• Pension annuities
• Mortgages
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• Stakeholder and personal pensions
• Unit trust and OEIC ISAs
• Investment bonds
• Savings endowments

All you need to do is answer a few questions so they can tailor the results to your circumstances. You'll get a table of products which will help you to find what you're looking for. We nor the FSA are selling anything so you'll get a list in alphabetical order, or you can sort it according to the features that are important to you.

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