To fix or not to fix - help!

wendywoo154

My first posting on here so patience with me, please.

Our fixed rate with Britannia runs out on 9th June. Currently on 4.64%, reverting to variable 7.04%. Britannia offering 6.19% two year fixed with no arrangement fee (disinclined to pay a fee and certainly don't want to add it to the borrowing).

But with news of the base rate coming down, even though lenders are increasing their rates, is it unwise to start taking out a fixed rate now???

Like everyone else, I don't want to fix and then watch the rates coming down.

Anyone out there got a crystal ball or words of wisdom, please????????????

Many thanks.

neas

i doubt rates will come down 1%....Computer says No...

Inflation is getting out of control... and reducing interest rates feed this. They pandered to people with mortgages this time.. but when inflation really kicks us all.. tthen they will raise them hopefully.

Also isnt 6% a high rate to fix at? WOuldn't you want to pay a fee and then fix it at 5.5% or something for 5 years?

Dick_here

I'm in a similar situation Wendy. After giving this a lot of thought, I still come back to my gut instinct which is that reverting to the SVR for now is my preferred option. As seen yesterday, it is gradually coming down whereas fixes are going up, bizarrely. So the SVR is the 'wait and see' option for now, which is what I want to do. If you want the stability of a fix, 6.19% with no fee isn't at all bad though in the current climate. It's still a fair bit cheaper than the SVR too. How about a Tracker as the in-between option ?

wendywoo154

I spoke to a mortgage broker yesterday who said that on the size of our mortgage (£65k), it wasn't worth paying an arrangement fee. I did a bit of maths and I think the cost of the fee plus the interest you would end up paying on it over the term of the mortgage, outweighs the benefit we would get. I am also disinclined to fix for more than two years because things change so quickly these days.

I have not considered a tracker mortgage before - oh no, more decisions to make!

I suppose it boils down to whether I want the luxury of knowing what I'll be paying for the next two years, regardless of what anyone else is paying.

lwcus78

Hi wendy,
I have a tracker with britannia taken out Jan this yr. Will be paying 5.55% from next month. (I think it may have gone up a bit by now though). What I liked about the tracker was that we could overpay as much as we wanted without a penalty and also the fact that we could leave at a fee of only £125 before the 2 yrs are up. So, if at a point they start talking about intersest rates increasing we can then change to a fixed rate.
HTH

taxi73

I got myself a lifetime tracker BOE rate +0.49%...the reason I did this was because I only owe £47k now and don't want to be messing again with remortgaging and I can overpay as much as I want.