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Once you decide to avail a housing loan, the immediate matter that tempests your brain is choosing between fixed and floating rate of interest. It is easy to get dumbfounded at this point if you are not financially trained.

Usually, when the media splashes reports on banks raising housing loan interest rates in and their impact on Monthly Installments, you deem it better to opt for fixed home loan rates. In fact, your banker may also counsel you to go for the same.

Now ideally as it should be, we take for granted that once you choose fixed rate plan for yourself the rate of interest will remain unaltered for the entire period you have fixed the interest rate for irrespective of any subsequent increase in the same. But in reality this is not necessarily the situation.

Here we demystify the nature of fixed interest rate housing loan transaction for you so that you can make an knowledgeable decision over the subject.

* Read the small print of your home loan document. You will find that the bank has the right to serve you thirty or sixty-days notice period that it intends to increase its interest rates.

* The bank’s first-year rates are binding on the bank only for that short period of 1 or 2 months. The 2nd-year home loan rates are not binding at all. Neither are the bank’s 3rd-year loan rates.

* Force Majeure Clause

So, while you read your mortgage agreement papers, you can spot clauses like this:

“Provided further that from time to time, the bank may in its sole discretion alter the rate of interest suitably and prospectively on account of change in the internal policies or if unforeseen or extraordinary changes in the money market conditions take place during the period of the agreement.”

This is called Force Majeure Clause that enables the lender to undertake appropriate changes in the interest rates on home loans they sanction to their borrowers.

So remember to look at refinancing every couple of years so that you do not pay too much. If you select a good home loan company you can save a lot of money over the life of your housing loan and in most cases the consulting cost is free.

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Comments (0) Nov 13 2009

Most of the people don’t know that take can change their loan to other investor; others are simply dismissive. They simply become firm with their first lender but they don’t know that it could nring higher interest rates. Due to the amount of housing loans and the term that the loan is amortized over, the interest can ranges from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The following factors may help you consider reinvesting your home.

Current Interest Rate

If your latest interest rate is higher than other housing loan packages, consider reinvesting. Go back to your current bank or financial institution and ask them to reprice your loan package. Most likely, your lender will give you an offer, which is better than your current one. Make a comparison between this offer and with offers from other lenders to see whether you should switch or stay put.

Lock-in and Clawback Periods

When you get a housing loan, there may be a lock-in period wherein your mortgage lender will charge you a penalty fee, maybe a percentage of your outstanding loan amount, if you were to fully repay your loan. Most of housing loans have a clawback period wherein the lender will claim back “giveaways”, such as legal subsidies, that they “gave” you when you take up your housing loan. Lock-in period and clawback period are different from each other. Because of this, reinvesting is not recommended.

Loan Quantum

The higher the amount of your loan, the greater your savings for the same decrease in interest rates will be. However, fixed cost to reinvesting, which comprises mainly of legal fees, does not vary much with loan quantum. The difference between your current and reinvesting interest rates has to be larger for a relatively smaller loan as fixed cost takes into a more significant part of your interest rate savings.

Distinguish Interest Rate Movements

Analyze how interest rates flow. Try a floating rate package as an alternative to fixed rate package if the interest rates are decreasing. Conversely, if you are on floating rates and believe interest rates are increasing, switching to fixed rates may be a good choice.

Personal Financial Evaluation

Think of reinvesting when your financial states change. Give some thought to take fixed rate package. Think of increasing your loan quantum. On the other hand, if your monthly income has increased and you want to lower interest payments, think of reducing your loan tenure.

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Comments (0) Oct 20 2009