On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Smylers wrote: > In the UK mortgages many also have a discounted rate for the first few > years. I had one which had a discount of 1.2% points for 2 years > followed by a premium of 0.8% points for 3 years (so paying out less > during the first couple of years after buying a home, but making up for > it in years 3-5, by which time you've hopefully got a payrise).
Is this discount completely unique to the UK? The US has adjustable rate mortages which affect the rate based on economic conditions. It looks like the module has a good start, and maybe improve down the road; but throwing in geo-centric sub modules might add on a layer of complexity down the road. What if six different countries have the exact same mortgage model. What if one country has no regulation, or if they change their finance laws every few years. > And there are interest-only mortgages, where in theory you only pay the > interest each month, leaving the main part of the debt exactly the same > size, and then also pay into an entirely separate fund to build up some > capital to pay off the debt at the mortgage expiry. In practice of > course folks mainly seem to get the money to pay it off by suing their > financial advisors for persuading them to sign such risky deals in the > first place. > > There have been studies which showed how in the UK it is basically > impossible to compare credit card rates, because every supplier has a > different way of doing their calculations (and not really making public > what they are). It wouldn't surprise me to find something similar going > on with mortgages -- certainly I have been in the position of having a > choice between two mortgages and the one with the lower rate had the > higher monthly payment. Again, interest only mortgages are not unique to the UK, and there are about 3 different forumas for calculating credit card interest in the US -------------------- Christopher Josephes [EMAIL PROTECTED]
