Mortgage term: most people opt for a 25-year term for their first mortgage but you can choose a longer or shorter period. If you opt for a longer term, your repayments will be lower, but it will take you longer to pay off the debt and you’ll pay more interest overall. The shorter the term, the sooner you'll be mortgage free, but you should be confident you can meet the repayments each month.  Deal length: given that many mortgage deals have an early repayment charge (ERC) if you want to end the mortgage deal early, it’s important to think about how long you’re happy to tie yourself in for. For example, if you think you might move in the next few years, opting for a two-year product rather than a five-year product might be preferable. It can cost thousands of pounds to get out of a mortgage early as the penalty is usually a percentage of the outstanding mortgage. So, if your mortgage if £100,000 and the ERC is 2%, you'll have to pay £2,000 to get out of the deal.  Repayment or interest-only: you can take your mortgage out on a repayment basis or interest-only. With a repayment mortgage your monthly payments are calculated so you're paying off some of the capital as well as the interest.  This way you can be confident you’ll have repaid the entire loan by the end of the term. In contrast, monthly payments on an interest-only mortgage cover only the interest, meaning you'll have the original loan to pay in full at the end of the term. The idea is that you’ll have a repayment plan in place, such as an investment or cash ISA, so you’ll build up a significant lump sum to clear your mortgage loan in full by the time your mortgage ends.