I really needed my own space. I'd been sharing with a group of friends for ages and as much as they're all great and everything, I never felt like I could relax and have the place to myself. I also hated paying out my hard-earned cash so that my landlord could send his kids to private school!

Anyway, I was whingeing about this to a girlfriend in a coffee shop one afternoon and she said that she'd got a superb first-time-buyers mortgage through National & Capital and that she hadn't even had to put a deposit down!

I was so excited! I didn't know offers like that existed! That afternoon I dragged my girlfriend around all the estate agents and we found this superb one bedroom flat just around the corner. I immediately put an offer in and National & Capital sorted out my mortgage for me - how good is that?

Amanda Robson*