Mortgage Interest Rates/Accom Supplement

Our fixed term for our interest rate expires at the end of next month

We will go with fixed rather than floating because floating is just sooooo expensive... BUT..

How long should I fix it for? (what has everyone else done) I'd hate to fix it for ages and then have interest rates drop a fair bit.

I've used BNZ's calculator and now I have to find another $100 out of our budget to cover the increase

And I just wondered about the accomodation supplement. If we go by DH's fortnightly pay (before tax) we are eligible. BUT.. if I take his yearly salary and then add on an approx amount for how much he might get for bonus's and then figure out how much that would average out to fornightly we aren't eligible... does his quarterly bonus ' count? (I'm guessing everyone will say yes)

Hmmm not sure about the accom. supplement. As for interest rates - they have dropped slightly in the last couple of weeks. And they are "predicted" to drop a bit next year sometime. I discussed this with our bank manager a few weeks ago as we are just about to start building so won't need a mortgage until November. Her advice was to fix for maybe 1 or 2 years and then the rates *should* be a bit lower

I ended up paying back over $600 when I had Char because our income was variable. It sucks, you need the money at the time so why can't you just have it? I mean, I pay mega tax but the time I need help, I am denied it (or have to pay it back in this case). And yet there are so many people out there doing nothing and getting my tax. Dont get me started...

I would ring and ask if you are eligible and go from there. Better to be safe than sorry.

Ours comes up for renewal in November, at this stage we are planning to only fix for 1 year with how things are looking.

we have to refix in October...as if much will be happening around then with the election and all so I guess we will see whats happening. I imagine 2 yrs is what we will do as I cant see dramatic changes happening over 2 yrs.

Go through a mortgage broker and they may be able to get you a lower rate!

Yeah I just saw that, we own about 40% of our house value so that's pretty cool.

I'm going to talk to my bank and see if they can match the interest rates of other banks, if not I may have to talk DH into switching banks for it. BNZ looks like the highest I've found so far grrr

(this is assuming its easy to switch - I don't know hardly anything about mortgages )

I've heard 2 years too, luckily we got our mortgage last year and fixed it for 3 so fingers crossed rates will be back down by then. Sucks aye Stacey!

As for the accomm supplement, I don't understand how when we contribute something like 70-80% of our income to our mortgage we still don't qualify for supplement? I'd like to know how exactly they work it out.

I rang kiwibank and they were very interested in having our business. It will be an interesting discussion when I meet with our personal banker at BNZ

I heard Gareth Morgan on TV3 and he said fix 1 to 1 and 1/2 years if possible, cos they should come down in that time. From what I've seen, there's no huge advantage to fixing for longer (used to be up to a percentage difference if you were 2 years vs 5 years). We renegotiate in March (come down interest rates!) and will fix for 2 years probably.

We have decided that unless BNZ can match kiwibank we are going to switch to kiwibank cause it's sooooo much better interest rate wise. But to get that good interest rate you have to fix for 2 yrs.

I'm going to have to work up the motivation to try and get through to IRD tomorrow about the accommodation supplement