Okay we all know that I am accountingly (I think that might be a new word) challenged but something is bugging me. The bond rate here is 2% yes you are reading right for the South Africans out there. Now people talk about the cost of living here etc etc compared to SA but the difference in the bond rates would mean the following to me.
My car payment
Scott's school fees
Erin's school fees
The groceries for the month (with prawns thrown in)
Okay so any smarties out there who can either commiserate with me or correct me?
14 hours ago
15 comments:
bloody hell, and didnt i hear they might even drop it again?
Ummm - whats a bond rate?
Jo, I'm also "accountingly" challenged {that's why I married an accountant ;o)}, so I can't offer an opinion except to say "when can I come over for some of those prawns?!"
Glad to see you're settling in nicely :o)
Keep warm!
xoxoxo
Hayley - Its the lowest rate since 1957!!!!
Vicki - bond rate = mortgage rate
Candice - when are you posting again?
Jo...you don't sound challenged at all!! the complete opposite actually...because you are right though. Hopefully the rate is coming down next week :o)
yay! just in time for the Christmas shopping madness...I say that through gritted teeth though....it is such a con, it will give people false confidence that they are a little better off financially, while they swipe the plastic just one more time.
Grrr!
Miss you!
PS...I got another x2 pages selected this week *happy dance time* :o)
I'm just commiserating! I cant spell nor account but I miss you.
Thanks girls miss you too!
Am packing my bags.
And SHITE and double SHITE; its only been 5 days. We all bloody miss you.
But am loving your regular posts. {:
Mortgage interest rate?...that banks charge? ... wow 2% is low. But we don't have a set rate here in NZ ... banks do vary. How much would you pay in SA?
Mmm...well I've always thought SA is a blooming rip-off!
Topkatnz - we pay 14.75 in SA
Hi - I'm no accountant, I'm a physio actually, but have lived in the UK! Sorry to burst your bubble - but you actually wouldn't GET a mortgage for that rate! That is the official Bank Of England Rate, but the banks haven't passed it on to the consumers! The Bank Of England keeps on lowering the Base Rate (Thats the 2% you are quoting) because of the credit crisis, but it aint helping ease the recession! Ouch! We have a mortgage in the UK - and it is not even near 2%!
PS: Am catching up on your blog as have been OFF LINE AGAIN!! Hellkom!!!!
~dreams of the day my mortgage rate drops to 2%~
Hi from another UK resident, and this time I am an accountant!
I can imagine that the rate seems pretty low to someone from outside of the UK, but I should point out that we are going through a recession here, so despite having a very low bank rate, that doesn't tell the whole story.
You don't use a car, but if you did, you would see that petrol costs close to a pound, and almost 70% of the price of petrol is one form of tax or another. You didn't mention which part of the UK you are staying in now, but I can tell you that if I were travelling by train to London from where I live, that I would pay about £100 for a train ticket - and I only live 150 miles from London!!
In the last ten years, property prices boomed, so people were tempted to borrow against the "new" values of their properties, and now those property prices are falling, and those people have lost a lot of equity, which may mean that they now owe more than the value of their homes.
It was far too easy to get credit in the UK over the last 10 years, and now all those chickens are coming home to roost, as people can no longer afford to pay for that debt, along with the worry of losing their jobs and then perhaps their homes.
We were also (and in some places, still do) paying horrendous prices for food, thanks to the high petrol price over the last 6 months. Of course, people have to eat, which means that they don't have a lot of spending money, which is why places like Woolies have collapsed, as people are hanging onto their money. While you're here, you might see plenty of sales taking place, but believe it or not, the sales usually only take place AFTER Christmas (Boxing Day is usually the busiest sale day), but retailers are having to start sales now, to lure shoppers in.
The government has just dropped the VAT rate to 15%, but in the grand scheme of things, a drop of 2.5% is nothing, and we're still hanging onto our money!!
So, you see... we might have a bank rate of 2%, but there's not much to be happy about!
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