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New research by uSwitch found that almost a third of people (32 per cent) who added arrangement fee onto their mortgages were advised to do so, despite the fact that this can add 112 per cent on average to the cost of the original set up fee.

The study found that people are on average paying £987 to set up their mortgage. However, if this is added to their mortgage the actual total amount paid can become as much as £2,094 - based on a 25 year mortgage at 7 per cent.

According to the study, conducted in conjunction with YouGov, over 2.5 million people added fees onto their mortgages on the advice of a mortgage advisor.

But uSwitch said, even more concerning was, that as many as 900,000 of those had fees added to their mortgage without realising they had agreed to it.

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com, said: "Adding fees to a mortgage means that you will be spreading the amount over many years and paying interest for the pleasure of doing so - this is an extremely expensive option and should always be seen as a last resort.

"There are also transparency issues at play. Advertising APRs which appear to be competitive, but are then subsidised with a fee of anything up to £4,000 is neither transparent nor consumer friendly.

"In many cases, people might be better off with a slightly higher APR and a lower fee - at least this wouldn't increase the actual size of the mortgage and cause them to pay additional interest on set up costs."