No, you will not encounter any penalties if you switch from your current variable rate to a 5 year fixed rate with the same bank in Canada. The banks want you locked in to collect the interest and to have you as a long term client.

Variable closed just means that if you have the right to lock into a fixed rate at any point in the term, in your case five years...you do not pay any penalty, you just must lock in for a term that is equal or more than the remaining months on your closed variable term...example; you have 36 months left on the variable, you must take a fixed rate for a term of 36 months or more.

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My roommate and i are getting ready to move into our first apartment. we are college students, so keep in mind we're almost always broke, haha. so we are more than likely going with dynowatt...they offer 9.9 cents per kwh for a fixed rate (we decided to do fixed versus variable to be on the safe side when it comes to planning). would it be smarter to do a 6 month contract or a 12 month contract with this fixed price? to cancel the contract, you have to pay a penalty fee of $25 x however many months you have left on the contract. so, if we are on month 5 out of 12 and want to cancel, we will have to pay $25 x 7 months left. however, we are afraid if we do the 6 months contract, then when the time comes around to renew it in november, the prices will be a lot higher and we will be forced to pay more than we want to. opinions!!

If it is a fixed rate of 9.9 cents per kw for 6 months or 12 and you plan on staying in the house or apartment for the longer of the two why not go for the12. But if either of you leave will the one left behind have the misfortune of paying the total due. Money is the killer of the best friend ships do your self a favor take the six with the understanding that the money is just what it is money! Friendship is like fine china once broken it can be repaired but the crack is always there.

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We work under a union contract that pays a penalty if we are not broken for a meal after 6 hours. if we work a long day (which is not unusual) we go into meal penalty again 6 hours after we are back in from lunch. there is an additional penalty every half hour after the meal is due until a meal break is called. the first two penalties are fixed amounts ($10 & $15). the third and all subsequent meal penalties are an hour of pay at the rate you are at when the penalty occurs (we call them "prevailing rate penalties"). in other words, if you are in time and a half when that third penalty occurs, you get an hour of pay at time and a half. if we are in double-time, the penalty is an hour of pay at double-time. our overtime structure is: first 8 hours - straight time 8-12 hours - 1.5x 12-14 hours - 2x 14+ - 2.5x the problem i am having is coming up with an expression in excel to calculate the dollar amount of meal penalties for that second meal. because the time we break for lunch is variable, the time from when we are back on the clock from lunch until we go into overtime is never the same. can anyone help? as an example, let's say our hours for a given day are: start work at 7:00am we break for lunch from 1:25 - 1:55pm we finish work at 10:24pm in this example, we were due our lunch break at 1:00pm (6 hours after we start work) so we would get 1 lunch penalty. we were back on the clock from lunch at 1:55pm so we were due a 2nd meal break at 7:55pm. we would incur 2nd meal penalties starting then and every half hour after that until the end of the work day, so the penalties would occur at: 7:55 = $10 8:25 = $15 8:55 = 1 hour of 2x 9:25 = 1 hour of 2x 9:55 = 1 hour of 2.5x the first two penalties are still fixed amounts. we go into double time after twelve hours, which is 7:30pm, and double and a half time at 9:30pm (the half hour lunch is off the clock). the third and forth penalties occur after 12 hours so they are each an hour of double time. the fourth occurs after 14 hours so it is at double and a half time. the only thing to simplify this a little is that the prevailing rate 2nd meal penalties after will always be at least time and a half. thanks!

Let's set up a worksheet like this: Cell / Entry A1: In1 B1: Out1 C1: In2 D1: Out2 E1: Hourly Rate F1: Hours1 G1: Hours2 H1: Straight I1: 1.5x J1: 2x K1: 2.5x L1: Penalty Count 1 M1: Penalty Count 2 N1: Penalty Amount 1 O1: Penalty Amount 2 A2: [enter the start time for before break] B2: [before break end time] C2: [after break start time] D2: [after break end time] E2: [enter an hourly base rate] F2: =IF(B2="",0,24*(B2-A2)) G2: =IF(D2="",0,24*(D2-C2)) H2: =MIN(8,SUM(F2:G2)) I2: =MIN(4,SUM(F2:G2)-MIN(8,SUM(F2:G2))) J2: =MIN(2,SUM(F2:G2) -MIN(12,SUM(F2:G2))) K2: =SUM(F2:G2) -MIN(14,SUM(F2:G2)) L2: =IF(F2<=6,0, CEILING(48*(B2-A2-0.25),1)) M2: =IF(G2<=6,0, CEILING(48*(D2-C2-0.25),1)) N2: =IF(F2<=6,0,10) +IF(F2<=6.5,0,15) +IF(F2<=7,0,E2) +IF(F2<=7.5,0,E2) +IF(F2<=8,0,E2) +IF(F2<=8.5,0,E2*1.5) +IF(F2<=9,0,E2*1.5) +IF(F2<=9.5,0,E2*1.5) +IF(F2<=10,0,E2*1.5) +IF(F2<=10.5,0,E2*1.5) O2: =IF(G2<=6,0,10) +IF(G2<=6.5,0,15) +IF(G2<=7,0,IF(F2+6<=8,1, IF(F2+6<=12,1.5, IF(F2+6<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=7.5,0,IF(F2+6.5<=8,1, IF(F2+6.5<=12,1.5, IF(F2+6.5<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=8,0,IF(F2+7<=8,1, IF(F2+7<=12,1.5, IF(F2+7<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=8.5,0,IF(F2+7.5<=8,1, IF(F2+7.5<=12,1.5, IF(F2+7.5<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=9,0,IF(F2+8<=8,1, IF(F2+8<=12,1.5, IF(F2+8<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=9.5,0,IF(F2+8.5<=8,1, IF(F2+8.5<=12,1.5, IF(F2+8.5<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=10,0,IF(F2+9<=8,1, IF(F2+9<=12,1.5, IF(F2+9<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) +IF(G2<=10.5,0, IF(F2+9.5<=8,1, IF(F2+9.5<=12,1.5, IF(F2+9.5<=14,2,2.5)))*E2) You can copy each formula above (including multi-line ones) and paste them directly into their respective cells in Excel and they will work. Entering time values in Excel is a pain, but I assume you already know that. I have set this up all on one line so that you could have one line for each worker allowing you to easily calculate totals. This works for maximum stretches of 11 hours before breaks (both before and after lunch). Any stretch beyond 11 hours won't get additional penalties. There are a few extras that you didn't really ask for, like hours at each OT rate, but I thought might come in handy. Alternately, you could replace the formulas in cells N2 and O2 with these formulas: =PenaltyAmount1(A2,B2,E2) =PenaltyAmount2(A2,B2,C2,D2,E2) Then paste the following code into a regular Module in the VB Editor: Const FirstPenaltyAmount = 10 Const SecondPenaltyAmount = 15 Function PenaltyAmount1(Start1 As Range, End1 As Range, dblRate As Double) As Double   Dim dblHours1 As Double   Dim dblResult As Double   Dim dblPrevailingTime   Dim intPenalty As Integer   Dim sglMult As Single     dblHours1 = 24 * (End1.Value - Start1.Value)   If dblHours1 <= 6 Then     dblResult = 0   ElseIf dblHours1 <= 6.5 Then     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount   ElseIf dblHours1 <= 7 Then     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount + SecondPenaltyAmount   Else     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount + SecondPenaltyAmount     intPenalty = 2     Do While dblHours1 > 6 + intPenalty * 0.5       dblPrevailingTime = 6 + intPenalty * 0.5       sglMult = PrevailingRateMult( dblPrevailingTime)       dblResult = dblResult + dblRate * sglMult       intPenalty = intPenalty + 1     Loop   End If   PenaltyAmount1 = dblResult End Function Function PenaltyAmount2(Start1 As Range, End1 As Range, Start2 As Range, End2 As Range, dblRate As Double) As Double   Dim dblHours1 As Double   Dim dblHours2 As Double   Dim dblTotalHours As Double   Dim dblResult As Double   Dim dblPrevailingTime   Dim intPenalty As Integer   Dim sglMult As Single     dblHours1 = 24 * (End1.Value - Start1.Value)   dblHours2 = 24 * (End2.Value - Start2.Value)   dblTotalHours = dblHours1 + dblHours2   If dblHours2 <= 6 Then     dblResult = 0   ElseIf dblHours2 <= 6.5 Then     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount   ElseIf dblHours2 <= 7 Then     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount + SecondPenaltyAmount   Else     dblResult = FirstPenaltyAmount + SecondPenaltyAmount     intPenalty = 2     Do While dblHours2 > 6 + intPenalty * 0.5       dblPrevailingTime = dblHours1 + 6 + intPenalty * 0.5       sglMult = PrevailingRateMult( dblPrevailingTime)       dblResult = dblResult + dblRate * sglMult       intPenalty = intPenalty + 1     Loop   End If   PenaltyAmount2 = dblResult End Function Private Function PrevailingRateMult(dblTime As Double) As Single   If dblTime <= 8 Then     PrevailingRateMult = 1   ElseIf dblTime <= 12 Then     PrevailingRateMult = 1.5   ElseIf dblTime <= 14 Then     PrevailingRateMult = 2   Else     PrevailingRateMult = 2.5   End If End Function Hope that helps...