The low Bank of England base rates and its knock-on effect for mortgage lenders has thrown up some wonderful anomalies, with one couple from Hampton, south-west London finding recession living comparatively easy.

Ben and Nicola Cameron took out a interest-only tracker deal with the Cheltenham & Gloucester building society in December 2007 with their payments tied to 1.01% below the base rate, which was then at 5.5%. Only now, with the base rate at 0.5%, they've found a monthly mortgage bill of about £1,500 is now zero.

That's funny enough but in a twist that is all too typical of our times, the building society's computer is charging the Camerons 1p each month because its computers cannot deal with payments of nothing. It really is "Computer says, 'No'!"

Although they are enjoying interest-free mortgage life at the moment, Mr Cameron, 37, who is an estate agent, said they were saving the money to put more into their home when the deal comes up for renewal. Nice one! Now with the couple expecting their first baby in June, the timing couldn't be better.

But if you are thinking about getting on the bandwagon, hold your horses. Since the rates began falling, lenders have withdrawn all tracker deals that are tied below base rate. Most people anyhow choose to go for a repayment mortgage when interest rates are low, as it means you can at least afford to be paying off some of the capital on your loan along with the interest owing.

You'd be hard-pressed to land a decent tracker anyway and the most attractive tracker mortgage now on the market that I could find is from Alliance & Leicester at 2.29% ABOVE the Bank of England's rate.

That is probably about the best you can hope for until interest rates start to rise again... if they do!