As the name says, a fixed rate mortgage is a mortgage where for the whole duration of loan, interest rates are fixed. simply put, the interest rate in a fixed rate mortgage never changes. Fixed rate mortgages are popular of all other type of mortgages as about 75% of all mortgages that are taken for a home purchase are fixed interest rate mortgages. Largest benefit of a fixed rate mortgage is that you always know exactly what your mortgage interest and principle amounts are at any given time during the life of the mortgage. this helps you keep your budgets in shape.

Fixed rate mortgage offers security and peace of mind as you are not worried about sudden changes in interest rates. For example if the lending bank offers 30 year fixed mortgage loan to a home buyer and both agree on a 5% interest rate. This 6% rate will be fixed for entire 30 year period for which mortgage loan was given. It does not concern the buyer or seller if the market rate increases to 6% or decreases to 4%. Home buyer will continue to pay 5% interest rate and bank will be content with that. Therefore Fixed Rate Mortgage rate applies same interest rate to monthly installments throughout the life of loan and it make possible a fixed monthly installment.

Main Benefits of a Fixed Rate Mortgage

1. In comparison to Adjustable rate mortgage, A Fixed rate mortgage is easier to understand and less complex.
2. As it is more secure loan, It is widely adopted by first time home buyers.
3. It suites two kind of buyers, First those who have a steady fixed income like salary etc. & Second those who wish to keep their houses.(does not suit investors)
4. As Interest rates fluctuate a lot, risk perceived by lenders is higher in fixed rate mortgage so the rate of interest is normally bit higher than adjustable rate mortgage.
5. Since the risk perception is higher in Fixed rate mortgage, Lenders usually ask for higher initial monthly payments compared to those of adjustable rate mortgages.
6. Fixed-rate mortgage is less flexible than adjustable rate mortgage.

On the other hand in Adjustable rate mortgage the interest rate is not fixed and it changes during the life of the loan. Usually the changes are linked with an index rate like LIBOR and move in accordance to it. In a fixed-rate mortgage, your interest rate stays fixed for the entire life of the mortgage.

Further Reading

Federal Reserve

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As the credit crunch seeps around the world, the rate of loans being declined is increasing expediently. The causative factor to this is that the banks have collectively amended their lending criteria. Whilst one is able to understand the methodology behind this, it does not make it easier for the many people who need to access loans.

A UK Payday Loan is a way of borrowing money off a lender and is a system that came to the UK from the USA originally. It works on the basis that you can borrow a fixed sum over a short period of time and then once you have been paid, you pay the money back. You need to be in full time work and have a bank account.

An aspect of a payday loan that is positive is that there is no credit check during the application process. This is quite often the main, contributory element of loans being refused and is symptomatic of the global economic slowdown that is prevalent.

Payday Loans are available in many, various places ; indeed, a simple search online will provide many different payday loans companies for you to peruse accordingly.

So, just why are the banks clamping down? The biggest contributory factor behind this is that the banks cannot access the money they once had access to, to subsequently pass on to borrowers. As a consequence of this, instant loans are not distributed so readily and this is impacting on people throughout the world.

Although the banks are tightening up somewhat on their money lending criteria, is is still possible to get access to a fast cash loan; indeed, the quickest way to get money, even despite the harsh economic slowdown is by applying for a payday loan. This is because the suppliers of money into the payday loan sector have not yet been impacted upon by the global recession.

The most significant factor in the collapse of the US financial institutions was the fact that money was lent to people who were unable to repay their borrowings accordingly. Such, high risk lending, led to banks not being paid their loans and led to disaster. Payday loans are however different in that the money is paid to people who are in full time employment and this reduces the risk of non-payment.

Having a payday loan is a way of borrowing that appears to have avoided the financial decline so evident across the globe. Payday loans allow people to access unsecured loans, where once this may not have been a possibility. As long as the pre-defined eligibility criterion is met, then the possibility of accessing money is good. A word of caution though, a payday loan will have to be repaid as per the agreed terms and conditions.

A payday loan does, like any other financial agreement, need to be repaid. Many UK payday loans services offer full terms and conditions, and therefore ensure you have read these accordingly.

For more useful debt advice and articles visit the bankruptcy and debt blog.

Credit card companies can change the terms of your account at any time. One of our readers, Jack, asked this question about consumer rights:

Hello,

I had a few things I wanted to inquire regarding Michael’s question. I know people are being taken advantage of everyday over the phone and with refinancing due to the “We reserve the right” fine print, are there ways to fight these transfers or agreements due to being misconstrued, unlawfulness, or being misinterpreted?

Would there be any reason to pursue BBB, FTC, State Attorney’s Office, Small Claims Court, or Arbitration, etc., or would this just be a waste of time, money, and effort? Would this actually get me anywhere if I was to make claims against them?

I understand it’s more of a my word versus theirs but would it matter? Does this ever happen and does anyone other then the credit card companies ever win?

I know that on several occasions balance transfers for myself and others that the terms change and they balance transfer your accounts without anything ever being signed other than the original agreement and you just default to whatever terms and percentages they fell like you should get, but is there any sort of protection for the consumers? Anywhere?

Thank You,
Jack

Thank you for your question Jack.

Most credit card companies have their cardholder agreements locked down - this means that they have so much legal terminology in them that it covers most any situation.

We have some very smart readers, and one of them, Shaam, actually gave the best solution as an answer to Michael’s question. Here’s what he suggested:

One thing that you do always have the right to do is to refuse the changes to your account.

For example: If you had balance transferred your debt onto a card that was supposed to be 0% interest for a year, and then the credit card company changed the terms to 5% interest, you can refuse the change to your account.

You would refuse the change to your account by sending the credit card company a certified letter saying that you refuse the changes to your account.

Typically the credit card company will close your account when you do this, but you will get to keep the better interest rate and your original agreement.

One word of advice though - if you refuse the changes to your credit card account, and they close your acount, you can never make a late payment. If you do most credit card companies will default you to the highest interest rate possible. If that happens your best bet is to balance transfer to a new account to avoid the permanently high interest rate.

Re-Opening Credit Accounts:

Does re-opening your old, closed-out credit accounts really help your credit score? A reader, BlueJeans, had this question for us:

Thank you Mr. CC for your article,

I have a question that relates to J’s question and your response. Since our credit score is 30% debt ratio on open accounts and closing those accounts can hurt our credit score, would opening them back up improve our score? (If it is allowed by those companies.)

I had several credit cards in the past that I paid off and closed before I realized how that action was not helping my credit score. It would be cool to think that the opposite would help improve my credit score.

Thank you for your time,
BlueJeans

Thanks for your question BlueJeans.

Technically re-opening closed credit accounts would benefit you. However in practice this is not always possible. If you have credit accounts that have been closed for a long time, most credit card companies prefer to open new accounts rather than re-open the old ones. It is possible to do this, just not common.

As far as your credit score is concerned:

This image from FICO.com explains it best. Your debt to credit ratio falls under “Amounts owed” (30% of your credit score).

Now, re-opening closed accounts would actually impact several areas of your credit score.

In my opinion, re-opening old accounts is a good strategy for anyone who is running close to their total credit limits (as long as they do not charge anything on their re-opened accounts and use them only to offset their debt to credit ratio).

Otherwise, it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth. Especially if the accounts end up being “New accounts” and not re-opened old ones.That’s just my opinion though. I am sure there are other situations where re-opening old accounts could conceivably be a benefit.

For more information on how your FICO score is calculated, you can check out this article:

If you do choose to re-open old accounts it would be helpful to monitor your credit score and reports to see how it impacts everything. FICO scores are complex (to put it politely) and sometimes it is hard to see exactly how any action you take may affect them.

As far as monitoring services go, I recommend Identity Guard by Equifax. There is also another company that I am currently investigating called Credit Karma. I’ll do a full review of them soon, but it’s worth checking out.

Have a question for us? Leave a comment below!

Carnival Links:

I wanted to take a moment and thank the following carnivals for featuring our articles this week:

• MoneyHacks Carnival–Frugalista Style! @ Little Miss Know It All
• Carnival of Money Stories No. 94 @ The Sun’s Financial Diary
• The Carnival of Financial Planning @ The Skilled Investor’s Blog
• The Carnival of Debt Reduction & The 21th Bankruptcy & Debt Carnival @ Bankruptcy Access
• Corporate Vigilance Jan. 25th Edition @ Corporate Vigilance
• Carnival of Consumer Credit #5 @ Arrive Financial
• Book Marketing Blog Carnival - January 28, 2009 @ Selling Books