Mortgage - to fix or not + for how long

asjm

hi,

need advice badly please???
we have been approved for our mortgage and and are unsure whether to fix it for 2, 3 , or 5 years or just go with a variable rate?

fixed rate are
2yr @ 3.7%
3yr @ 4.34%
5yr @ 4.94%

any advise would be greatly appreciated!

hardcore

It down to your own personal circumstances but rates look likely to increase over the next few years. Some banks have already taken the fixed option out of the market in order to start increasing the variable rates. Personally I would get fixed as at least you know how much you will be paying a month for the medium term, You may loose some money over the start of the term but will make it back when variable interest rates start rising due to the ECB increasing it's interest rate and banks have no other option but increase them also.

TontoMurphy

What bank is offering you those rates???

OldPeculier

TontoMurphy wrote: »

What bank is offering you those rates???

I was wondering that too!

TontoMurphy

Possible Troll??
"Posts: 1"

asjm

ICS are offering those rates, are they unreasonable? we thought they were pretty ok but were new to all this. its based on a mortgage of 150k.

TontoMurphy

ICS??

asjm

ics building society, there a member of the B.O.I

TontoMurphy

At those rates, absolutely fix for 3 years and if you can afford the 5 year fix at the moment (new house normally means more bill; furniture, kitchen stuff etc), i'd fix for the 5. That way you can safely ignore all interest rate discussions until 2016

What's variable rate are they offering you at the moment?

boatbuilder

Those are birlliant rates and you'd be mad not to fix it for 5 years.
I was quoted 8.75% for a 5 year fixed with Permanent TSB.

km79

i recently fixed at 4.3% for 3 years. my advice would be to do the same depending on variable you have been offered

asjm

variable rate is 4.25%, we told the brokers last we to fix it at 2% but now im getting worried, should we fix it for longer or leave it at the 2%?

coylemj

If someone offered you those fixed rates I think it's safe to say that they have now increased significantly or have been completely withdrawn.

I can't understand your last post (we told the brokers last we to fix it at 2% ), could you rephrase that sentence which mentions 2%? Did you mean to imply that you had an option last week to fix at 2% - which country do you live in?

asjm

sorry didnt phrase it very well,
we asked our broker last week to fix the mortgage for 2yrs @ 3.7% but were getting a bit worried should we have fix it for longer, I rang our broker yesterday and she advised me that we can either fix it for 3 yrs @ 4.34% or for 5yrs @ 4.94%. we live in Mayo

iffy_2007

have u followed through with your mortgage yet???
I was in AIB today discussing my mortgage..currently on variable, getting worried about increasing interest rates so thought I would speak to the mortgage advisor....

My variable rate is 3.49%

I'm being offered -

1 year fixed - 3.59%
2 years fixed - 3.69%
3 years fixed - 3.89%
4 years fixed - 4.19%

Now like yourself, I'm relatively new to all this and while I have one they can be confusing! I have a similar amount of a mortgage as yourself...maybe it could be worth a try to get one with AIB as the rates I have being quoted are a bit lower than yours. Best of luck with it, its very exciting, confusing at times too! Make sure and read what your are signing. I am lucky enough to be in a secure job and told them I didnt need the payment protection, turns out 40e had being taken from my account every month without an explanation as to where it was going, it was just disappearing from my account...Now surely that should be illegal?? anyways, again, best of luck op

km79

again if it were me i wud def consider the 3yr....only.4% over the variable...one interest hike and you are over it ... i wud even consider the 4yr its not a bad rate in comparison with other banks rates

Johnny Favourite

I fixed this time last year with AIB for five years @ 3.86%..... Pretty glad i did now looking at how the rates are going.

Silly question really but how high do you think they could possibly go.. worse case scenario?

SteM

km79 wrote: »

again if it were me i wud def consider the 3yr....only.4% over the variable...one interest hike and you are over it ... i wud even consider the 4yr its not a bad rate in comparison with other banks rates

+1 - fix for 4 years at that rate. You'll save money in the long run, there's no doubt about that.

asjm

worst case, i could see it going as high as 6%, hope to god it never does go that high! we decided last night to fix it for 3 yrs and see what happens!

thanks everyone for all the posts;)