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If you lock in a high rate you can always refi down later

• kypro 4y ago
  You must live in the US lol. No, you can't do this in the UK without incurring fees. Once you take out a fix you basically lock yourself in at that rate. You cannot sell or refi without fees, which are often in excess of 5%. If rates move down a lot perhaps that would make sense in some cases, but generally it doesn't.
  • theGnuMe 4y ago
    The US has refi fees too. Whether it is worth it depends on how much longer you will stay in the house. It can be worth it if it it reduces your payment to something manageable with the option of only increasing the length of the mortgage by a little bit, i.e. borrowing the money for longer. You pay more in interest over the lifetime of the loan unless you can refi again at a lower rate. I suspect if you calculate the expected average interest rate over the length of your ownership and the fixes (2-3, 5, 10) you'll get a similar number even with higher volatility in the specific rates. But you'd have to run the numbers/math. This of course does nothing for the many 12-24 months of higher payments even if it evens out over time.