You’ll know if your loan is fixed-rate or variable-rate by reading the loan contract and repayment terms before signing for the loan. If there’s any confusion whatsoever, make sure you talk to the lender, ask questions, and be sure you fully understand the rates, terms, and conditions before you agree to the loan.
So what is a fixed-rate loan? Well, fixed-rate simply means that the interest rate for the loan will not change at all throughout the life of the loan. Hence, it is fixed. Variable-rate on the other hand means that the interest rate may fluctuate throughout the repayment period. There are a number of things that may affect the interest rate, and make it go up or down.
The benefit of a fixed-rate loan is that you know exactly how much interest you’ll pay, and you won’t have to worry about anything changing during the repayment period. This is great for your budgeting since you can plan your payments accordingly and you know they won’t change. That being said, there are also benefits to a variable-rate loan.
While you may have to worry about your interest rate increasing slightly with a variable-rate loan, you can still sometimes get a better deal and pay less interest in the long run. But it’s important to remember that there may be times when your variable interest rate increases. So what determines the Variable rate?
Whether your interest rate increases or decreases with a variable-rate loan will depend on something called the Prime rate. In the simplest terms, the prime rate can be considered an overall interest rate that the government sets, and that banks use when lending to one another. If the prime rate increases, your variable-rate loan may increase as well.
These are just a few things to consider when deciding whether to use a variable-rate or fixed-rate loan. And there are many different types of loans that fall into both categories. No matter what you choose, make sure you’re capable of making your monthly payments on time, and repaying the loan in full by the due date.
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