Let’s Fix Again…

redbooks

What are people doing at the moment with remortgaging? Three years ago I fixed (and by god I wish I’d fixed for 5 or 10 years but I know if my gran had wheels she’d be a bike etc). Now I’m up for remortgage with a 55% LTV and I have no idea how long I’ll be living here but in all likelihood at least three years and maybe five and maybe ten. Who knows what tomorrow brings? I’ve never been a planner.

Santander are offering me rates of just above 4% for 2, 3 and 5 year fixes. My mortgage broker has sweetly said to stick with them rather than the hassle of a remortgage to save a fraction of a percent. She also tells me that her fancy city clients are mainly doing five year fixes. 

The rise in rates is going to hurt a fair bit but is currently affordable.

Do I fix for two years and hope  there will be a shift downwards or go for the certainty of a longer stretch given inflation  not looking settled, Trump, general withering of Europe is my current dilemma.

What are other people doing? 

FlorayG

"if my gran had wheels she’d be a bike" I just LOVE that I've never heard it before where did you learn that?      Anyway if I was remortgaging NOW I would take 5 years I think; maybe you will lose out a little but it's never going to go back to the miniscule rates we previously had and it may well go up. In the worst case, at least you know how much you are paying every month. Mine is due 12 months from now and I'm already worrying 

RelievedSheff

We have another 16 months on our current fixed rate but at the end of that whatever rates are doing we will be fixing for 5 years because that will be our remaining term.

Kerreh

If it helps I fixed 18 months ago (less than 60% LTV) at 4.05% for 5 years.. people at the time were fixing for 2 years hoping for the rates to go down but look where we are - as others have said the particularly low rates we saw aren't likely to return any time soon.

redbooks

It does help yes thanks for feedback, five years sounds far away in theory with a big financial decision and yet we’ll blink and it’ll be here if we’re lucky. 

RelievedSheff

redbooks said:

It does help yes thanks for feedback, five years sounds far away in theory with a big financial decision and yet we’ll blink and it’ll be here if we’re lucky. 

Agreed.

We have only once taken out a two year fix when we had some adverse credit on our file that would drop off before the next application. The two years flew by and it felt like two minutes before we were remortgaging again.

ReadySteadyPop

Kerreh said:

If it helps I fixed 18 months ago (less than 60% LTV) at 4.05% for 5 years.. people at the time were fixing for 2 years hoping for the rates to go down but look where we are - as others have said the particularly low rates we saw aren't likely to return any time soon.

Exactly, fix at 4%, don`t try to game the bond market with mortgage debt.

Veteransaver

I've always felt 2 year fixes are pointless, when we see rates changing quickly a 2 year fix doesn't really give you much of a cushion as it will always be ending soon.
A 5 year fix much better imo you've just got more time to plan around adverse events (eg get better job, save more etc).

Hoenir

redbooks said:

What are other people doing? 

What products are on offer to you? That's what counts.  

VNX

Fixes aren’t much different between two and five years.

as we all know trying to predict or second guess future rates is futile. Personally I’d go five years for certainty and as others have said two years flies by.