Are you regretting that fixed rate?

sometimesaver

Hi. We took out a 5 year fixed rate at 6.2% a couple of months ago. I'm not a financial expert obviously but I was convinced rates were going to go up! Doh! I should say that our mortgage is not huge so at least that's small comfort. And we know what we're paying for the next 5 years, but it's still galling to think that we're wasting cash on interest when it could be coming off the capital. Anyone else in the same boat?

epsilondraconis

5.78% just over 1 year ago - just less than 2 years to go.

Look on the bright side - we could be dead.

Lokolo

I think you have to look at it from a perspective. I personally would choose a fixed rate, only because I then know how much I am going to paying each month for the next year or whatever. That way I can then budget.

However, if I don't know how much, for instance, now the tracker mortgage owners will have more money to spend - will they save that up and use it when IR's go back up? Doubtful (some might though!), and what happens if IRs went above your fixed rate? You would be the one laughing then!

Aaagh

We had a fixed rate when everyone else had the really low rates over the last few years. But we knew exactly what we had to pay and could budget accordingly. You can't change it know, so my advice is try not to look at the interest rates and just go with it.

pfpf

Lokolo wrote: »

now the tracker mortgage owners will have more money to spend - will they save that up and use it when IR's go back up? Doubtful (some might though!)

the sensible boring people will keep their monthly payments the same to effectively overpay.

only on monday i arranged my payments to stay the same (actually i upped it by 48p to round it up) after last months drop so was already overpaying, i am overpaying even more from today.

oh, that makes me sensible and boring.

OP. no one should be "regretting" taking a fixed rate. were you happy with the deal when you took it? were you relieved in the knowledge you could relax and forget about interest rates for a while?

hindsight is a wonderful thing, we could think of 100's of "what if's" a day with hindsight.

Lokolo

pfpf - thats why I had the brackets there! I knew some people would be sensible and do as you are, or saving, I would imagine a lot are doing that on this forum.



and its not boring its MSE!

financialbliss

We fixed when the base rate was at 4.50% - fixed at 4.79% for 5 years in 2006.

Base rate then climbed from 4.50% to 5.75% (May 2007), then first reduced to 5.50% in December 2007 and been sliding since.

If Nationwide pass on the full 1.5% reduction in their SVR (currently 6.19%), their SVR will be 4.69% - less than my 4.79% fix :eek:

I'm not regretting it just yet, as we had some lower rates due to the fix when the BoE rate was rising.

One last point - rates could be 2% or less by the middle of next year!

Financial Bliss.

uzubairu

pfpf wrote: »

OP. no one should be "regretting" taking a fixed rate. were you happy with the deal when you took it? were you relieved in the knowledge you could relax and forget about interest rates for a while?

hindsight is a wonderful thing, we could think of 100's of "what if's" a day with hindsight.

We wanted the security of knowing what our payments would be constant and manageable for a period of time and we have no regrets.
Our fixed rate (4.79%) has allowed us to get our mortgage down from £113,000 to £98,255 in less than 2.5 years.

We were happy with the deal when we took it out in July 2006 and nothing has changed that feeling.

Yesterday we further reduced the term on our mortgage by another 3.5 years by increasing our mortgage payments by and extra £130.
Combined with the £500 OP each month we should be mortgage free within the next 7.5 years.

tunnel

i'm up for renewal in january,had a fix for 3yrs at 5.19,would love to fix again but how low can it go?mind boggles after today

SpoonyOh

We took out a tracker two years ago, then saw the rates rise. Who knew? Regret's for people who like the taste of bitterness. You can't really kick yourself for doing what you thought was best at the time. I'm in a similar quandary to Tunnel, on the SVR and ready to change, but to what?

Welshlassie

I don't regret it as such (we fixed in january 08 at 6.39% for 5 years), our circumstances at the time dictated what we had to do and we felt secure in the knowledge that we knew what we would be paying for the next 5 years. It is a bit galling to see the rate dropping so much, but there is nothing we can do about it (I have no intention of shelling out £8k Early repayment fee) so we are just getting on with it. We are still over paying and we have savings accounts paying more than our interest (DH non tax payer) so we are still up. Will be a different story in 12 months when our savings rates drop but we'll reassess what position we're in then.