Mortgages: To fix or not to fix?

[Willapp]

When we sold our house at the beginning of last year, we "claimed" our property on Zoopla and updated the details which then triggered it to amend the valuation and it boosted it considerably. Think it also may have helped us secure the above-asking-price offer we accepted, as the buyer may have checked Zoopla to see what valuation they gave it and their offer was pretty much exactly the same.

Not saying it works for everyone, but it's worth claiming your property on Zoopla (can't remember how we did it, but it wasn't hard and I don't think they even did any checks to prove that it's your property).

Currently on a 2yr fixed but wish we hadn't to be honest as I think we could get a better deal now on a variable rate, and we're limited how much we can overpay on fixed. I agree that at the moment rates aren't going anywhere so why pay a premium for a fixed? Even for the risk-averse I would never fix for more than 2 years as it's so hard to predict that far ahead, and the longer you fix the higher premium you pay for that "peace of mind".

[MicrosoftBob]

Just looked up the value of someone living in our village, they're house value is bonkers for the locality, it's not even that big compared to neighbouring properties...add electronic security gates and a fading rock star and pop the house value rockets

[filthy1980]

bought our house Nov 2007, saw a crash coming so fixed for 5 years thinking rates would rocket to 15%+ like they did in the 80's

advised mate to do the same, he's been cursing me ever since

[northernladuk]

bought our house Nov 2007, saw a crash coming so fixed for 5 years thinking rates would rocket to 15%+ like they did in the 80's

advised mate to do the same, he's been cursing me ever since

I'm not surprised. Try to plan for the future using a 20 year old model is fundamentally flawed.

[filthy1980]

I'm not surprised. Try to plan for the future using a 20 year old model is fundamentally flawed.

i did also tell him to buy gold at around about the same time (which he did)

so i think we're even ish

[ChimpMaster]

Depends on your level of risk.

I've just remortgaged a property and doing another. The first I went with variable at 1.79%. The second I may fix but as the variable rates are below saving rates any hike in interest would be offset by a hike in savings.

1.79%, that would be a residential mortgage rather than a BTL mortgage, I presume. Or are you committing mortgage fraud?

[ChimpMaster]

If you don't think rates will go up, then why pay a premium to fix? All you are doing with a fixed-price mortgage is paying insurance against rate rises which the banks have obviously factored in, so that they still (normally) end up ahead of the deal.

Why not take a super-cheap variable rate and overpay like hell

This is my thinking too. I can't see rates shooting up, especially with the Oil game likely to play out over a few years yet. When rates do move up, they will likely be in 0.10% increments rather than the 0.25% we are used to seeing.

Heck, it's even possible to get a 10 year fixed residential mortgage now, at quite reasonable rates - so if you want security then that's the way to go.

[OrangeSquash]

With a ten year fix availble for under 3% at the moment, I think you'd be mad not to consider it if you are remortgaging any time soon.

[northernladuk]

With a ten year fix availble for under 3% at the moment, I think you'd be mad not to consider it if you are remortgaging any time soon.

I have to say it certainly looks attractive. There isn't much scope to go lower but god knows how high it could end up.

[ChimpMaster]

I have to say it certainly looks attractive. There isn't much scope to go lower but god knows how high it could end up.

It's very tempting to re-mortgage so as to invest elsewhere.