Normally, around this time of year, we.....

miss_thenorth

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reassess all of our bills, and look for cheaper everything. Usually this time of year, because, it seems the last three houses anyways, our move in date was September. So, we call around insurance companies, see if we can get cheaper or better rates. Evaluate our usage for hydro and gas, make changes, propose changes if and as needed. Call around to providers to see if they can give a better deal.

There are two ways we are saving money this year --one-is our phone bill. We threatened Bell, that we were gonna go with another company for our home phone, long distance, internet and cell phone. It wasn't until we said we were leaving that they came at us with a great offer. So, we went from over $120, to ~$60/mo. Plus they are giving us features like call display etc, that we did not want to pay for before. the catch is we have a one year contract. No biggie--we will renegotiate next year when the contract is up.
The other way is--we are breaking our mortgage and getting a new one. There will be a penalty involved, but it will be worth it in the long run. We are going from 5.99% to prime - which is 2.25%.


As far as insurance goes, we are getting pretty much the best rate out there, but this is not always true. We have found that every year, we must do this to stay on top, so I just wanted ot share, incase it gives any one else the idea to do this too. :)
 

TanksHill

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Wow your new mortgage rate is awesome. Whats the catch?? Definitely sounds way to good to be true.
 

miss_thenorth

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TanksHill said:
Wow your new mortgage rate is awesome. Whats the catch?? Definitely sounds way to good to be true.
It's a 5 year variable open mortgage. If prime goes up, so does our rate. But if we keep an eye on it, we can lock it in low within that 5 year time frame. If we were to get a fixed interest rate--the rate would be much higher--which is what we were paying before. Hubby has been cursing for this whole time we've had this mortgage, that we should have a variable, since for the last 6 or so years, prime rate has been so low. so I told hime to stop his bellyaching, and get a new mortgage. Now Murphy's law suggests that now since we did this,- prime will go up. Hopefully if it does, we will be able to catch it in time to lock it in.
 

enjoy the ride

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Miss thenorth- something sounds off there- if the company offered you a variable at such a low rate, what keeps you from locking it now at this historically low rate?
Are you sure that the lock in rate won't be some thing like prime plus a percentage or that you can't lock in until five years from now, when the prime rate will probably be higher?
 

miss_thenorth

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enjoy the ride said:
Miss thenorth- something sounds off there- if the company offered you a variable at such a low rate, what keeps you from locking it now at this historically low rate?
Are you sure that the lock in rate won't be some thing like prime plus a percentage or that you can't lock in until five years from now, when the prime rate will probably be higher?
Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear--you would have to lock in at whatever the fixed rate was at for whatever term yo are comfortable with. 3, 5 10 year etc... If prime goes up, fixed will go up. If you think it is going to go up considerably--then you would lock it in. Obviously we would lock in before it reached 5.99%, like what we were paying before.
 

xpc

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Miss the north, I don't know the difference between Canada and the USA in lending but 2.25% is a full point below prime in the states, as here they can offer lower rates but make up for it in front end fees. Right now 5 year ARM's are 3.8% and 15 year fixed is 4.4%, I have always read that if you don't have a lot of money or don't plan on moving inside of 5 years always go with a fixed rate because the refinancing can cost $5,000 in the worst of times.

If you did get a good deal you are saving some money, each point on a $100,000 loan is worth about $50 a month, for you that would be saving over $200 a month on the same $100k.
 

sweetproserpina

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Good job negotiating with Bell! When we tried to switch long-distance carriers last year, we suddenly became their best friends and they called us and gave us a deal to keep us as customers. :rolleyes:
But looking at the bills again, we recently decided to switch from Bell and Cogeco(internet) to Teksavvy. Our phone and internet bill will be cut in half, yay!
 

miss_thenorth

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sweetproserpina said:
Good job negotiating with Bell! When we tried to switch long-distance carriers last year, we suddenly became their best friends and they called us and gave us a deal to keep us as customers. :rolleyes:
But looking at the bills again, we recently decided to switch from Bell and Cogeco(internet) to Teksavvy. Our phone and internet bill will be cut in half, yay!
At least you have cable to compare with. Out where we live, it is Bell or primus, orChatham Internet Access. We were going to go with Primus (there cell phone plan works similar to Bell's Wimax, and if Bell hadn't have budged, we woud have gone with them for about $20 more. I really realy really HATE bell, but in the end, the almighty dollar won out. One of these days, I know we are going to go boycott them simply as a matter of principal. We haven;t reached that yet.
 
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