to be seriously seriously fekked off that I signed up for a 5.63% fixed rate mortgage in May 2008?

[bibbitybobbityhat]

I can't bring myself to think about the money we would have saved if I'd gone for a variable or tracker.

How am I to know what interest rates are going to do in the future? I am no kind of soothsayer.

V v v v v annoyed and resentful and bitter.

[Monty27]

5.05 here too Bibbity but I couldn't take the risk of rising..

[CocoPopsAddict]

YANBU.

We were very lucky - my DH got us on a tracker at the right time.

But you know, things change...win some, lose some.

[AnyCorpseFucker]

we are ok now

but before this we were royally fucked by a fixed rate

it happens to a lot of people

[PattySimcox]

Yes us too - think it comes to an end next year thankfully - think we'd have been £150ish a month better off according to DHs calculations - over 5 years that is £7.5k I hope he meant £15 per month

[JugsMcGee]

Ours was 6.39% for a while. The interest rate plummeted about 3 months later! That's the risk. Tis annoying though.

[buttonmoon78]

YANBU.

We have been in your shoes before. However, this time we were lucky and our fixed rate ended in Feb 09 so we've been on the SVR since, making good overpayments.

At some point something will work in your favour!

[maighdlin]

YA SOOOO NBU were not on a fixed but we pay 5.5% and have such sucky credit and negative equity that we can't get a better deal. sickens me that we have missed out on saving loads of money like nearly everyone else i know with a mortgage . our mortgage was initially at a great fixed rate but when it was switched to variable our company had barely lowered their variable rate compared to other lenders variable rates, and at that point we were in negative equity and no other company would touch us. we don't even have a massive mortgage and it was 60% ltv at the time we got it great now all depressed about extortionate mortgage.

[Stickwithit]

YANBU, I feel your pain- vv similar fixed rate since June 2008. Tied in for 5 years. Thought it was the right decision at the time- now feel vvv stupid, vvv bitter, vvvv skint!!

I feel fairly sure that interest rates will rise during June 2013, the second that my fixed rate ends.

Grrrrrrrr

PS You might be able to pay a sliding-scale penalty to get out of your fixed rate. Might be worth comparing the penalty cost to potential savings.

[Kayano]

I got my fixed rate mortgage for 5 years in 2007

And I worked at Northern rock!

[BrawToken]

Me too. We got such rubbish advice for a guy at our bank and it's our first time as home owners... Bought at the wrong time too. In fact, any financial decisions I have ever made have been pants

[NinkyNonker]

I bought my flat at the end of 2007...ooooh about 4 months before the whole market crashed. On a 6% odd fixed rate. Nice.

Now on standard variable but worth a fair bit less than I paid.

[BikeRunSki]

YANBU but surely you all knew the risk when you took out Fixed Rate loans?

[BrawToken]

Stickwithit Mine ends in May 2012, so I think you might have a year of benefitting from your fixed rate as it's bound to go up as soon as my deal ends

[ShellyBoobs]

bibbity I think we have the exact same deal, taken out at the same time.

I remember when we were taking this deal out, some friends were looking for a mortgage at the same time. We discussed what we were going to do over dinner one night and they decided to go for a deal which (I think) was a tracker on BR+ 0.69%, while we went for the fix.

At the time it meant that we were paying pretty much the same rate.

Thankfully our mortgage is very small but would obviously be smaller still if we'd done the same deal as our friends did.

[scaryteacher]

Took out my fix in 2006; it was 5.09 and the lowest I've ever had in 20 years of paying a mortgage. SVR from January, but when it was black Wednesday and the rates went to 18%, I was glad to be on a 10.8% fix, so it's swings and roundabouts.

[ShellyBoobs]

Try this calculator to work out if you're better off paying the early redemption fees and moving to another deal.

[NinkyNonker]

It wasn't that much of a risk at the time Bike, there was no forseeing the crazy situation we're in now.

[tyler80]

We've just fixed at 5% for 5 years. The best variable rate we could get with our loan to value was 3.8% above baseso it would only have taken a small rise in interest rates to take us higher than what we've fixed off.

It annoys me when people talk about first time buyers and it being a great time to buy because interest rates are at an all time low. A huge number of first time buyers can't get decent rates because they don't have big enough deposits.

[SazZaVoom]

It was probably quite sensible at the time tbh.

No-one could ever have guessed that the Bank of England would go against economic theory and keep interest rates at a massively lower level than the market would expect.

I have a fixed rate to 2020......

[thefurryone]

Feel free to cheer yourself up by comparing with my situation of buying a house in 2007 that is now worth £120K less than we paid for it, currently have at least £65K of negative equity.

What irks the most is that we were thoroughly sensible, had a pretty good deposit, made sure were could adequately afford the mortgage on one salary etc.

It's also fairly annoying that we saw this very much as a 5 - 7 year house that would do until we had some children and they became bigger than babies. Just had DC1, have no idea when we're going to be able to move and there is no point extending as we could only make downstairs big enough, upstairs would still be too small.

So whilst YANBU, cheer up it could be worse :)

[biological]

We fixed at 6.5 in 2008 & I'd be lying if I said I didn't kick myself occasionally for losing the gamble. Every now and then I calculate how low our mortgage would be if I'd stuck to a tracker.
But we felt we were being sensible - we knew we could afford the repayments & had known people who had lost their houses when rates went sky high in the 90s. So most of the time I just ignore it & get on with life & know that we'll own it in 2029. I like knowing how much is going out each month & it could be a lot worse.

[jellybeans]

YANBU to be fekked off. But a lot of people are in the same boat, worse even. It could have gone the other way. You could go on forever thinking of what you missed out on, hindsight and all that but there are people in terrible conditions who would be very bitter of you or say at least you have a house, got a mortgage, not in a war zone, starving etc etc.

[QuintessentialDead]

Variable rate tracker. Set at 0.25% above bank of England base rate.

Now and then a happy banker try to persuade me to remortgage, I tell them my mortgage rate, and they go "erm, uh, oh, thats nice, but if you DO fix your rate now, it might serve you well in the future should the rate increase".

yeah right.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

jellybeans, I do completely utterly and sincerely agree with everything you say. Of course in the great scheme of things, dh and I are lucky beyond imagining. Here we sit in our warm dry home, with the central heating on, having enjoyed a hot cooked meal, both our healthy happy children tucked up in bed upstairs. I appreciate those things more than words can say.

[BOOareHaunting]

YANBU.

My friend has an interest only mortgage and often gloats mentions that interest rates mean she pays less than half what I do in mortgage repayments for a 3 bed semi in a popular and expensive part of town, than my rent on a 2 bed HA flat.

I did point out she owns just as much of it as I do.

I really want a mortgage and could afford a cheap 2 bed house now but if/ when the rates rise I'd have to sell my body soul to keep up the payments.