A month ago three families trying to remortgage gave an account of their attempts in these pages. Before the credit crunch, the families had all been granted their existing home loans without any hassle, and at competitive rates. Now they face a battle to qualify for good deals and could even be ineligible for a new loan.

Here they explain how their searches are progressing. It is not proving easy.

The Anning family

Since Lisa and Jim Anning, of Reading, Berkshire, took out their current loan, Lisa has given up work and Jim has become self-employed. They have a £150,000 two-year tracker pegged at 0.1 percentage points below the base rate with Britannia Building Society, giving repayments of £850 a month. This deal ends in November.

Remortgage dilemma: Will lenders view the Annings differently now that their employment status is less stable?

Lisa says: “We have only spoken to Britannia. The one feature we really want is to make unlimited overpayments. Britannia has one such deal, but at 1.49 per cent above the base rate [6.49 per cent] - forget that. There is another Britannia deal at 0.99 points above the base rate, but it will only allow overpayments of up to £499 a month.

“We have looked at other building societies, but it seems to me that upfront arrangement fees have gone through the roof since last time. I saw one with a 3 per cent fee and thought that was crazy. Principality Building Society had a deal with a £1,000 fee - it just doesn't seem worth it.

“I also tried moneysupermarket.com, the comparison website. When I was filling in the details I ticked self-employed. It then asked how many years of accounts we have, but Jim does not have a full year. It did give an option for how many months of accounts were available, but the rates the search produced were not at all attractive. The best deal, from Coventry Building Society, was 1.8 per cent above base rate.

“The impression I am getting is that Jim's employment status would be even more of a problem if we were moving house.”

The Pollard family

Steve and Taz Pollard, of North Devon, have a £100,000 sub-prime, self-certification loan at 5.9 per cent with Oakwood Homeloans. Steve also has a buy-to-let investment. The £50,000 buy-to-let mortgage with Bristol & West charges 5.35 per cent.

Remortgage dilemma: Will lenders view Steve as a prime borrower now that he is employed, or will he still be considered an unsafe bet?

Steve says: “We have decided to leave the buy-to-let loan where it is. It works out cheaper than remortgaging, because the standard variable rate is much better than the fixes on offer, especially once you have added arrangement fees.

“We have spoken to a couple of lenders about the residential loan and had some quotes from HSBC, but were put off by the high fees. They really have crept up in the past two years. The best so far seems to be a 5.98 per cent two-year fix or tracker with Nationwide, with a £599 fee.

“We plan to book a rate as soon as possible, then if rates come down further, we can switch to a better rate - sort of hedging our bets.”

The Bohorun family

Prakash and Alka Bohorun, of Pontefract, Yorkshire, have a £146,000 loan on a two-year discounted rate of 5.69 per cent with HSBC. With a property value of £200,000, it is touch and go whether they will be able to secure the most competitive rates available.

Remortgage dilemma: Should they hold out for better rates?

Prakash says: “We are quite close to our remortgage date in mid-September. The best deal we have been offered so far is a 6.09 per cent seven-year fixed rate with Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G).

“We just missed out on its lowest rate of 5.99 per cent because it is available only on loans up to 60 per cent of a property's value. However, the C&G adviser said to hold fire because interest rates could come down. The deal we are looking at has already come down once from 6.29 per cent, so I think we will wait a couple of weeks before we book it.

“I have no problem with fixing for seven years as we have no plans to move and can afford the £1,015 it would cost each month, which is £150 more than we are currently paying.

“With inflation rising, there only needs to be a small increase in interest rates for things to mess up on a tracker deal. At least I will know my outgoings for the next seven years.”