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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that ordinary people should not have to take a punt on their mortgage rate?

340 replies

Mintyy · 08/05/2013 18:39

Just had letter from our building society.

Our mortgage is going down from £800 and something a month to £379.75.

This is because we opted for a fixed rate 5 years ago when rates were 5.something % (sorry for vague details, but ykwim).

Now that "offer" has come to an end so we are going on to the standard variable rate which is currently 2.5%

I could RAGE, SCREAM AND WEEP at the amount we would have saved over the past 5 years if we had not opted for a fixed rate at the time.

Aibu to think that I didn't ask to take a punt on what mortgage rates would do, I am not a gambler and I am not interested in taking risks.

It really makes me absolutely hopping mad I tell you!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:23

I'm sorry I've infuriated you, but really, what has your mother dying got to do with any of this? I am sorry for your loss and I fully understand that the loss of a parent totally overshadows my petty worries (having suffered same not so long ago) but really I can't grasp your point.

I am not whingeing about being poor.

I am not whingeing about the value of my house.

I am saying that it is wrong to ask everyday (even reasonably well educated people like me and dh) to take a punt on what interest rates are going to do when they take out a mortgage.

Is all.

OP posts:
Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:26

Funnys
Thank you for your post abut as you may have ascertained I am not interested in taking gambles on things as big as my mortgage. I just don't want to be ripped off, tis all! I think the banks should offer a product where people are paying a fair price and the right price for the length of the loan.

OP posts:
DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:27

Have read to end of p5.
OP,you clearly don't understand mortgages, how they work, are calculated, on what basis etc.

I can't believe you are moaning about this.

You have no business signing contracts, of any kind... you really don't.

sydlexic · 08/05/2013 23:27

If interest rates where higher your mortgage could now be going up. The worst that could happen if you had a fixed rate was paying more than necessary, the worst that could happen if you had a variable rate is repossession.

Try to look on the bright side, your payments are reducing, if you overpay you will save what you have lost and more.

Saddayinspring2 · 08/05/2013 23:29

If you hadn't wanted to take a punt, you wold go with the variable rate.. Ie take it as you find it. By choosing fixed rate it was , presumably, a calculated gamble on your behalf to avoid a severe rise in the rate.
You achieved that but sadly the variable rate became much lower... Presumably it was higher when you initially took out the mortgage so must have only lost out for part of the time.
The reason I would never take out a fixed rate again is because you have tie in clauses that are a pain.
Pay off as much as you can afford now while IR are low as this reduces the overall amt paid back and term as well.

DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:29

Thank you for your post abut as you may have ascertained I am not interested in taking gambles on things as big as my mortgage. I just don't want to be ripped off, tis all! I think the banks should offer a product where people are paying a fair price and the right price for the length of the loan.

Laughs loudly! Actually guffaws at this.

You want to be financed in the way that suits you, for the length of a loan, in some cases 25 years and want it decided up front

Grin GrinGrin

OrWellyAnn · 08/05/2013 23:30

Housing is a very emotive issue, because we are talking about people's homes, a place where they have memories and feel safe because they have no landlord to take the house out from under them. But unless you have paid off your mortgage then the banks ARE your landlor, and you dont even get the added bonus of having your house maintainance ocevred by someone else.
The dangers of home ownership are no less than any other investment, and one that pays off very nicely for those in the right place at the right time, but for equal amounts of others it doesn't. It is our (relatively understandable) human inability to see them as an investment that has led so many people to take, frankly, irrational risks. (and I'm not talking about the op here, but people who have bought at ANY cost to themselves and their lifestyles just to get on the ladder and are now facing the very real issue of not being able to pay back capital on interest only mortgages)
I really do feel for the people out there for whom the shit is about to hit the fan, but i also feel that this was part of the risk for them and if you take a willing risk then you have to be stoical about accepting any of it's potential outcomes. (Just as never owning my own place because I can't GET a mortgage because my small 'deposit' savings are going nowhere with shit interest rates was a possible risk for me. I don't like it, but i do accept it was my choice and suck it up.)

Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:30

Damnbamboo
Please can you explain to me then? (seriously). We have to decide what to do now. I would love some financial advice that I can rely on. Feel free to pm me if you would rather not advise on the boards. I will keep anything you say private.

OP posts:
Bobyan · 08/05/2013 23:30

Nope, your just whingeing.

For the hundredth time, you didn't take a punt. You chose (you, nobody else) to buy a mortgage at a set rate. You pay extra interest for this opportunity. You knew this when you signed up for the mortgage, because if you claim not to have known this, why fix?

Talkinpeace · 08/05/2013 23:31

mintyy
They would if they could - because whoever did so would clean up
but how do you define "fair price" over the lifetime of a mortgage.

Here is one of the best educated guesses about what interest dates will do in the future.
Digest.
www.dmo.gov.uk/reportView.aspx?rptCode=D9A&rptName=42d7fc40-ef66-48a9-b861-9e9c5a4d7639||PWLB&reportpage=Lending

Sleepwhenidie · 08/05/2013 23:32

I honestly can't think of anything to say that hasn't been said already Mintyy - but will try this again...nobody can see into the future, be they a witch, a banker or man in the street. We can only make a reasonable guess. If you want to pay for borrowing over 20+ years then you have to take a punt one way or another, it's not wrong or unfair on anyone in particular, just the way it is and there aren't any real alternatives.

Talkinpeace · 08/05/2013 23:32

PS Mintyy : I've invited you to message me but I'm going to go to bed and read the Economist in a minute.

Bobyan · 08/05/2013 23:33

Will you be blaming Damnbamboo if her advice doesn't give you the financial outcome you want?

DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:34

mintyy I ain't got anyting for you, other than basic research and short to mid-term loans can offer.

Nobody does, unless you're so wealthy you don't really need mortgage.

FWIW, I also lost about a lot of money on a fixed rate/tracker. I went 50/50 fixed/tracker and rates dropped.

I kick myself, but I made the choice

EverybodysStressyEyed · 08/05/2013 23:35

you did pay the right price for the loan based on the information and facts at the time you took out the loan!

Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:35

"You knew this when you signed up for the mortgage, because if you claim not to have known this, why fix?

Because why not fix?

Because I did not know what interest rates were going to do so I closed my eyes and stuck a pin in the map!

But I don't think that is the way people should buy their mortgages!

(how hard is it to understand?)

OP posts:
Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:36

DamnBamboo

When you say "I kick myself" - why should you?

OP posts:
DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:36

Mintyy YABVVVVVVU

Go to bed.

Accept that if you mortgage and look at it purely in plus/minus terms of your bank balance - you may not often win.

The info you want is that which will make us all vvvvvvv rich.

Let me know when you've worked it out.

Bobyan · 08/05/2013 23:36

And whose fault is that?

(How hard is THAT to understand?)

DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:37

Because i took a punt.

50 fixed - it could have gone up it, but it didn't.

50 tracker - it could have gone down, it did.

I lost more than I gained, but there you go!

EverybodysStressyEyed · 08/05/2013 23:40

no - that isn't the way people should buy mortgages

if you need to rely on guesswork then you really should go and get some independent financial advice. there are plenty out there and those who specialise in self employed

do you go into the 2nd hand car dealership, close your eyes and point and then complain how unlucky you were to get the car that won't even pass its MOT? Do you go into the supermarket and just pick the first 6 apples out of the crate and then bitch that 3 of them were bad?

Only you can make these decisions and you need to educate yourself or get some advice that you can then base your decision on

DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:41

*DamnBamboo

When you say "I kick myself" - why should you?*

Who else should?

I TOOK OUT THE LOAN, IT WAS DOWN TO ME. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE LOAN YOU TOOK OUT THEN YOU DON'T SIGN. WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT THAT?

Sorry, but 10 pages on, a little shouting needs to be done.

Original poster
Mintyy · 08/05/2013 23:41

Heh heh Talky, ty, I may well speak to you tomorrow.

To everyone else who strangely (weirdly?) seems to have become infuriated with me for being annoyed about an economic system (NOT you, or my friends, or mil, or family, or any mumsnetter, or any rl actual person) I wish you a happy and peaceful goodnight.

OP posts:
DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:45

YOU ARE BEING OBSTINATELY OBTUSE MINTYY.

IT ISN'T THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND.

DamnBamboo · 08/05/2013 23:45

sorry for caps, keyboard stuck Grin