Interest Rates

pollyanna24

I know these have been talked about to death, but am now worrying myself (hopefully over nothing).

I've looked at interest rates historically and they don't seem to jump from say, 5% to 15% overnight, there always seems to be a couple of years for this to happen.

I have a fixed rate which is up in 17 months, so all these stories are scaring me. We could afford a little rise (maybe to 6 or 7%), but certainly not 10% to 12%.

I wish I'd fixed for longer now.

Just wondered what other people thought. I know the general consensus is that they are going up, but how quickly do people think they will go up? And what will make them go down again? A house price crash?

meanmachine_2

If you can afford rates to go to 7% then you should be fine.

They're unlikely to go beyond 6% in the next 17 months, but who knows?

And you#'re right to do your own research. Even in the late 80s, rates didn't jump overnight. It took 18 months to get from 7% to 14%.

I'd try not to worry unduly about it. There's very little you can do apart from make sure you have a savings cushion equivalent to 9 months mortgage. Worst case scenario is that the govt has to bail you out from then on.