Should I fix my morgage?

I bought my home 6 years ago and have approx 250,000 euro of a morgage. I can't change provider at the moment. I am with EBS. I am on a variable of 3.83% at the moment. The 3 year fixed is 4.9%, 5 year is 5.3% and a 10 year of 5.95%. What should I do? Is 10 years too long to fix? Should Ijust enjoy the variable rate for now? I know people can't know what the future holds but I am sure some of you have a greater insight than I do. Thanks for your help.

Stress test your mortgage (see what your repayments will be) at 4.83%,5.83% and 6.83%. If you can comfortably afford these repayments then you could be better off staying on the variable rate - if you can comfortably afford these repayments you really should be looking at overpaying your mortgage which you cannot do if you fix.

If rate increases will overstretch you then fix. I would not fix for longer than 5 years but that's a personal choice.

Fixing is a means of guaranteeing your repayments, it should not be used to time interest rate increases.

www.moneybackmortgages.ie

Hi, is there a site where I can calculate an increase in interests rates and how it would affect my mortgage?

For example what would an increase of 1% mean to me..

I am in the process of fixing at 5.75% and the increase from my old fixed rate which I have just come out of and the new fixed rate is a massive 184 euro a month.

To go on variable would cost me an extra 70,this is in comparison to the old fixed rate which has now finished.
I am wondering if I would be better off overpaying the 114 euro rather than fixing..I cant change mortgage lenders at the moment.
Another big problem I have is that I have written saying I will accept the 5.75% fixed rate for five years.However what Im hoping is that as this doesnt come into effect until next month and there could be a chance I could pull out of it.

http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/iym/mortgagecalculator

(replied to your pm)

Thanks NorfBank.. I was very lucky in that I phoned the permo and I was able to stay on variable..
I will now over pay the amount and hope that the rates don't rise too much in the next year!
By over paying it appears that I will save over 5.000 in interest and also 11 months off the term..its a gamble with the rates but if my figures are correct it should be ok based on the interest and time saved.
Thanks so much..

You're very welcome.
5.75% is just too high if you can take the gamble to overpay a variable rate at the same level.

Such a relief!!
I had sent my acceptance letter in and they had sent me a letter which due to postal delays ,I only received yesterday..basically it said that they had received my letter of acceptance of a 5.75% fixed for five years,however it had not got the repayment amount sorted.

My old mortgage had been taken for this month ( Dec) so the next payment where the fixed rate would have come into effect would have been Jan 2011.So I would say I got to stop it,just in the nick of time !!
Once again thanks for the quick response..it really helped make my mind up.

Thank you for your response. Still trying to make up my mind. You are great to respond so quickly.

I’m on a variable at the moment with ptsb 4.65%. i was on fixed 5.7%. Currently, we are using the extra money for day to day expenses. Should I over pay the mortgage & what are the benefits?

I’m also looking at fixing again but think 5.75% is a bit high?

Overpaying will reduce the term of the mortgage. See here

http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/iym/mortgagecalculator

Also, if you are overpaying, you may not need to put more money into your account to cover your repayments when rates inevitably rise.

[broken link removed]

A bit confused by the calculators,but could anyone tell me if it is better to pay a lump sum off a mortgage as opposed to paying say 200e extra a month?

Im confused by it as paying the lump sum reduces the capital each month,but not by much ,but it obviously doesn't change the term of the mortgage.

On the other hand if I pay off 200e a month extra,I seem to be saving on interest and paying the capital off quicker and reducing the term by 18 months?
Any advice ?

iffy_77 said:

. Still trying to make up my mind.

Click to expand...

Don't fix for more than 5 years. Nobody knows what way interest rates will go. My feeling is that Irish banks will raise the variable rates as soon as they can without collapsing the market as they need to make money. That said, if you can currently afford nearly 6% on 250K you should do what thedaras is doing and overpay your mortgage as much as possible.