That gives borrowers some certainty about their loan repayments regardless of whether rates continue rising, stay the same or in fact fall. There’s not a lot of long term benefit in continually chopping and changing every 12 months from one mortgage provider to another. They need to be mindful that the fixed rate that they’re locking themselves into, at any given point in time, already has certain implied rate changes. So, unless the borrower’s really willing to second-guess financial markets and where banks are pricing their fixed rate home loans, they’re probably better off on a variable rate. So there’s a bit of a natural hedge there. If you’re going to spend $3000 at Christmas make sure you budget it. read more