It looks like mortgages are going up as we come close to the end of the year. Many expect that the rates will keep going up so it is strongly recommended to lock your mortgage if you are planing to stay at the residence you purchased for some time. If you lock your mortgage today for a 5 year fixed you can still find a rate as low as 3.5% which is records low.

Most of the lenders we deal with for a 5 year variable rate mortgage can do that . The question is what is your rate when you lock-in. This is more important as you do not want to lock in at posted rate, it will be counter productive unless your variable rate is currently higher. We have lenders who offer locking in at best rates - meaning discounted fixed rates only offered to brokers.

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Do you prefer fixed or variable and why?

If you can afford the payments on the fixed rate, I'd go with the fixed rate because you are not taking any interest rate risk.

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I want to apply for a student credit card and the bank i'm with is offering this, plus 56 days interest free credit on purchases provided i've paid that balance and the previous balance on time and in full. i only want this for emergencies, but if the emergency comes up is this a good rate? help! i'm clueless.

The interest rate is about the norm for credit cards but if you don't use the card then you will not have to pay anything so the rate doesn't matter. Similarly if you do use the card for an emergency and you pay it back within 56 days it will be free. The interest rate only becomes an issue if you are not going to pay back the money borrowed within the 56 days and if this is the case there are lower introductory rates available for 6 months that then revert to 18.9%. A bank loan would be much less than 18.9% and if you are a student you should be able to get a cheaper interest rate on your overdraft if you ask your bank.

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Before i start, please understand that i do not fully understand the situation of which i am speaking, so if i say something that is wrong, or fairly stupid, just please help me to correct it. it is my understanding that some variable rate interest loans are based on the interest rate for government treasury bills. assuming that this variable interest rate loan is like that, would it be better to get the loan when the economy is good or when it is bad? is the treasury bill interest rate generally higher in good times or bad times? does the variable interest rate work in the inverse of the treasury bill interest rate, or it goes up when the treasury interest rate goes up and down when the treasury interest rate goes down? my current belief based on my understanding is...it is better to get one in bad times when the government is hurting for cash because they are getting significantly less from taxes, and so are trying to make the treasury bills cheaper to attract buyers. that, in turn, will lead to a lower variable interest rate on your loan when it is based on the treasury bill rate. and i believe as the economy gets better, your interest rate will stay the same or get better for you. do i have it right? and if you would, explain to me why i am right or why i am wrong. thanks for any help in figuring this out.

1. Since rates are very low now, it would be better to get a fixed rate loan now. It seems very likely that rates will go up as the economy improves, and that it will improve. 2. The government tends to lower interest rates when the economy is bad, in an effort to improve the economy, but there are other factors that come into play as well, like inflation. At present, there is little inflation. As the economy improves, interest rates tend to go up. 3. Variable interest rate loans are tied to t bill interest rates, and go up when they go up. 4. If you borrow when rates are low, you have to anticipate that some day they may go up, and you'll have to pay more per month, or at least interest charges will be larger. Its a risk that you take.

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Ok, so with all this talk about recession and economic disaster, is it a good time to take a personal loan for a car? i have a steady income in a secure job, still live at home (so pay no rent, no bills etc.), have no kids or dependants. would a variable rate be better or a fixed rate? will the banks lower or raise their interest rates on personal loans as the year goes on? i would be looking at 2 years of weekly repayments. thanks for any help.

Right now is a great time to get a personal loan for a car. There are many deals that car makers have which may interest you. Remember that it all really depends on your credit. I always prefer a fixed rate but depending on your credit and the rate offered, you may want to decide at that time. If the economy continues to be the way that it currently is, then banks will definitely lower interest rates to attract customers. If you decide to take a personal loan right now, and 6 months down the road you see that there are lower offers from other banks, you can always refinance.

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I read a lot of the answers here already and it helped, but my variables are slightly different.... - high 700's credit score - 100% financing on $370k - 30 years fixed - 0 closing costs

No No. Interest rates are around 5.80% right now.

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Right now i have a heloc and i owe $34,500. my fixed rate is 4.38%. i have 8 years left to pay on it and my monthly payments are $435.53. this is a fixed rate feature within the equity line of credit. if i go back to the variable rate it would be prime - .25. currently prime is 3.25 and has been for quite some time. i would get 3% assuming it doesn't adjust. i would also have a minimum payment of roughly $87 per month and of course anything extra i pay goes towards principle. my question is does it make sense for me to switch it back to the variable. interest rates will eventually go up, but will prime go up a lot in the next 8-10 years? right now i've been making my payments, but it would free up quite a bit of money for me if i go back to the variable and i would rather focus on paying off my 5,800 credit card balance. it's at a good rate, but only for 1 year. it would be nice to take some of that extra money towards it, but i don't know. any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I would suggest that your current loan is NOT a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC), but it's a fixed rate second mortgage. The difference is that with a HELOC, you have a floating line of credit, with a limit that you can access any time. A second mortgage is a set loan... that you can't access other than the initial draw. However - that's really just titling and semantics. The answer lies in how quickly you expect to take to pay off the loan. With a new HELOC, how much is the maximum that it can go up per year? Or does it actually have an upside limit? Which index is it tied to? No one knows the future, but I would guess that interest rates will not skyrocket anytime soon. However, they will go up eventually. Try to forecast (conservatively) interest rates on the rise... add up the maximum payment that you can make, and look at how quickly you will pay down the principal. Keep in mind that with a HELOC, the more you pay in principal, the lower the next payment will be (if interest rates stay the same), because the interest is based upon the amount due. Currently, your payment is fixed, because a second mortgage is amortized. You should sit down with a respected Financial Advisor who can help you crunch the numbers. You would possibly be better off with a variable rate HELOC -especially if you accelerate the payoff of the principal. The risk really lies in interest rates and when they go up.

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I was just checking our various mortgage deals through comparison websites. specifically i want to see available tracker (bank of england base rate) mortgages. but almost every time you find a seemingly good deal and investigate further it turns out it's in fact a variable rate (lenders inter lending rate). why are lenders allowed to misrepresent their products like that? if i'm not grossly mistaken the tracker is tied to central bank base rate and the variable to lenders rate. i understand variable rates are harder to sell but why on earth would they show up as trackers on search engines, comparisons, even lenders website categorisations? surely there is no suckers that actually fall for that?

Even when BoE trackers were being sold, some lenders were selling 'discounted rate trackers' and 'inter Bank rate trackers' and all sorts of other names that tracked everything under the Sun ... Some products called 'Base Rate Tracker' ACTUALLY tracked the inter-bank rate and NOT the BoE rate = this caught out a very large number of people... .... and yes, people do fall for it = many people can't even work out a 'percentage', let alone understand what Compound Interest means to their Credit Card balance when making minimium payment ... and as for AER, BoE, RPI & CPI many people simply have no idea what you are talking about ... On the other hand, a lot of BoE - x% deals where sold, (some > -0.5%) ... and SOME lenders actually did PAY their borrowers when eg. their BoE - 0.75% deal resulted in the lender owing the borrower 0.25% every month :-)

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I am trying to approximate the waiting time for patients using little's law but it breaks down when the que is low (the completion rate drops and the wait time artifically increases). can someone point me to a better formula which will account for low arrival rates (i'm no expert so i'll need a explaination of how to use the formula/symbol meanings, etc...). thanks ian.

When arrival rates are low, waiting time is also very low. The standard queing formulas should work just fine.

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I have a condo that i bought 2 years ago, 80/20 deal. the 1st mortgage is a 6.5% 5-yr. arm, and 2nd is 9.75% 30 yr. fixed. i have an option of refinancing the 2nd loan into a heloc with a 5.36% variable rate. i realize it is tied to fed prime rate, and i was wondering if it would be a smoart move to go for this percentage, and possibly lock the heloc in some time? any help would be greatly appreciated! p.s. i am actually trying to sell my condo- what are the predictions, do you think market is going to pick up? if i sell it now, i would have to pay 10-15k out of pocket, which would be hard for my budget... id market going to get better any time soon?

Absolutely not. You can refinance either with another mortgage or a fixed-rate home equity loan. Keep in mind that the HELOC is not only at a variable rate with nowhere to go but up, but it is also a revolving account that accrues interest in a compounding fashion. Even if your rate doesn't increase, you'll pay interest equivalent to a fixed rate of about 2% higher.

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Could increase or decrease over the 5 yr period of time. compare a 5 yr certificate of deposit which offers a interest rate of 4.75% compound quarterly or compare index mutual fund which is not fdic insured. this investment is in the stock market, so there is risk involved. which of the three would be better to invest in.

You could invest $5,000 in small business and earn 24% per year ($1,200/year). Go to http://get24percent.blogspot.com/