Tue 30 October 2007 - A punt on Cup Day
I’ve taken a punt on Cup Day, even though I’ll be flying back from Adelaide about the time the race is on.
The hot tip is that the Reserve Bank will decide to up interest rates on that day. In fact, the doom-and-gloom merchants at ANZ are predicting up to three rises in the next year, and some of the banks are considering raising their rates on top of that. So I’ve done what I probably should have done before the last couple of rises: rung up the bank and arranged to switch to a fixed rate.
I’m currently on 7.62%. They said they could give me 7.80% for 1-3 years, or 7.85% for 4-5 years, for a $350 switching fee. I’m actually thinking I’ll plump for the latter. It’ll leave me paying about $60 a month more (very manageable) but mean some certainty for a while, allowing me to be free from obsessing over interest rates.
Okay, so theoretically the rate could go lower, but somehow I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon. So hopefully it’s a safe bet.