If your mortgage lender is part of one of the nationalised banks such as Intelligent Finance (which is part of Halifax a rescued bank) or Northern Rock, the odds are you’ll b told to get a new mortgage elsewhere if you want to move home.

Mortgage clients at Northern Rock who took out their mortgage after 12th may 2008 are only being offered refinancing if the remortgage is of the same value as the clients existing mortgage.

Whereas Intelligent Finance has informed its clients that if they want to remortgage, they have to go to other lenders owned by Lloyds Bank (such as Scottish Widows or the Halifax). If they go elsewhere they could face exit penalties. And as from April 2010, no one with a mortgage with Intelligent Finance will be able to refinance their deal wit IF.