Bridging loans - Anyone had one? Are they enormously incredibly expensive?

[Bluebear]

Dh has started a new job miles away, so is staying away from home a few nights each week - We have had our house valued but it's not on the market yet (waiting for decorator and new carpets (really needs them as we've had loads of building work in last couple of years and carpets are ruined)) - in the meantime I am finding the separation really hard and a house has come on the market in the region we are moving to and it looks great (dh has a viewing tomorrow).
Dh has been talking about taking out a bridging loan if we really want this house (of course will put ours on market asap and agent thinks it is the type that sells fast)...anyone know a website that calculates repayments for this sort of thing? Or have any experience with bridging loans at all?

Bluebear no experience but a word of caution. We needed to move last month as DD started school. So we rented a house in new area, house sale was due to complete a few weeks later so we anticipated only paying rent and a mortgage for a few weeks. But the chain has collapsed and now we have a very big mortgage and very big rent until some indefinate time hence forward. The school is great but there will be no family holiday next year! In hindsight we should have exchanged contracts before taking on a rental place.

We had one for a month. I can't remember the exact details as it was a few years ago.

I remember it not being as expensive as I thought it would be.

It was arranged through our solicitor as they had an account with the bank or something so it was very straightforward.

We are in Scotland though so it's very common here and there was virtually no chance of the sale falling through. I think Lasvegas is right that you should be extremely cautious though.

Thanks, Dh has looked at the house and it needs complete renovation - new bathrooms, kitchen, boiler etc. We have just spent 4 years renovating current house, and really didn't want to do it again so we are just getting on with trying to sell ours and hoping that the right house comes up at the right time.
Thanks for the advice though - may still come in handy