Spelinge? Whatt's dat?
I'll have you know I had a good Queensland school education.
Paul and James, My real reason for fixing the interest rate was that I had to be sure what my repayments would be for several years. A few percent up (which did happen) was going to be difficult territory! If I save money or break even over the five years, that's cream on the cake.
Geoff, on a fixed interest, I was limited by bank rules in how much I could get in advance. But I have got enough ahead to make it reasonable to convert to a variable rate mortgage with redraw.
Trevor, yep, my first mortgage peaked at 18.5% around 1990/91 when I could least afford it. I recall paying the max I could each month, but at the end of each month I owed the bank $300 more than at the start of the month. Groan! Well it has ticked down now to where I can use it as a source of cheap credit through redraw.