Nationwide, the country's second largest mortgage lender after Halifax, has announced yet another rate rise, the second in two weeks.

Nationwide building society made the announcement that they would be putting their rates up yet again, with its two year fixed rate mortgage rising by 0.5 per cent.

Rises in swap rates and the cost of borrowing on the international money markets has forced banks to increase their rates in a desperate bid to prevent themselves from sinking under.

Woolwich has also announced raised rates across its range and is planning to pull all of their two year fixed rates from the market altogether as they run out of funds.

Moneyfacts.co.uk's mortgage expert Darren Cook, said: “The average two year fixed rate stands at 6.75%, the highest rate we have seen in the last 10 years.

'Customers looking to fix their mortgage for five years are also paying the price as the average rate has increased to 6.72%.

'The curse of Friday 13th bought more pain for borrowers as swap rates reached a new high of 6.49%.

'With lenders having to pay such a huge price to secure funds and a lag time of a few weeks before this cost is passed on to mortgage customers, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.”