I know a few people on here like myself either have worked or work in the banking sector, particularly homeloans.
I’m toying with fixing my loan for 1-2 years, I figure if the rates go up end of the year I’m covered and if they drop there’s no way they’ll go as low as the rate I’m fixing at.
Whats peoples thoughts rates wise? Going up, down and if so when?
His first point about the fixed rates being higher than variable is wrong for a start.
We fixed our rate because it was so low. Not sure how long for. My wife does all the home loan stuff because she loves numbers.
I’m happy with my 4.9% variable from CBA with redraw / offset etc.
The fixed rate is the bank’s best guess of the average during the term of the fix so it’ll probably all work out the same in the end. Yeah the rate move will probably be up, unless there’s another crash like the GFC and very few experts predicted that one. If China crashes then they’ll probably bring the rest of the world down with it.
Four Corners - How China Fooled the World
But would you seriously act on any advice from a bike forum? Try the Australian Financial Review.
Nah, they’re fucken clueless/pushing their own agendas.
If you can get a reeaallllly good fixed rate at the moment it might be worth it. Rates are only going up from here, it’s just a matter of how much and how fast. RBA held again today I believe.
But generally, you’re not really gonna beat the banks with a fixed rate unless you know something they don’t. OR like BBB sez, China crashes/another GFC hits/mh360 turns up and flies into wall street.
This x2.
I won’t be fixing either of my mortgages. With the rates so low, it’s actually bad for me at tax time when it comes to my investment property. I think we will see rates start to rally at the end of the year, but i’m not overly concerned just yet.
CommBank has been great to us as well.
Does your acct have fee free redraw?
I’m with Westpac on an employee package at about 5.71%. Might try to get them to match your rate, are you on a package that gets a discount or is that your standard rate.
Ask about fee-free low-interest credit cards, They should do that.
other questions to consider,
Is there any chance you might want to make extra payments? Can you do that with the fixed rate?
You should be able to get under 5% as an employee - they are basically giving you bugger all (maybe 0.2% discount on their top product?).
One of Westpac’s senior financial planners in Qld tried to package me up 6 months ago with the worst financial plan imaginable, purporting to be independent - the only benefit would have been to them with key money and trailing kickbacks. Their plan wasn’t the least bit appropriate to our current lifestyle or future plans.
My home loan has free redraw and fee free anything else. I’ve had home loans over the years with NAB, CBA, Suncorp, Homepath (now part of CBA), and a non-profit mob called Waratah.
My opinion is go with the cheapest option that offers you all the flexibility you want now, and perceive you’ll need at least for 5 years.
Hmmmmm i’m with westpac on 5.28% with offset and free redraw
Rocket Repay with 0.7% employee discount.
I rang about getting a higher discount and they wanted me to take a topup to make up my loan.
Might have to get back onto them.
From what I know about employee loan packages at another major bank i can assure you its better to go shop around. It’s (employee benefits) an area that is increasingly being scaled down in financial services from what I can tell (or general competition is overrunning it).
a lot of people fix half of the loan and leave the other half variable
makes them feel better but really unless rates make some wild swing it wont do much