Interest Rates

[Lanthanide]

Yeah, I looked into pet insurance and the premiums seemed insane to me.

Of course, should that ever happen, we'd probably insure the remaining worker.

Right, so you're screwed if you have a car crash or other accident that severely injures (but not kills) both of you.

Also health insurance generally doesn't cover pre-existing conditions, and similarly income-protection insurance can have exclusions for particular conditions, so if you decide to put off getting these types insurance for 5-10 years until you "need" them, you may find out that they're not actually very useful because of what happened in the intervening time.

[ivanp]

Low-excess full cover pet insurance is a good example; blows my mind that people can manage to pull the money together for a premium every month, but couldn't handle a surprise $500 vet bill.

The premium is $39 per month for our dog, and I'm insuring mainly against multi-thousands dollar bills in case when surgery is required.
Say in case of a broken leg (which is not a rare case for dogs), I expect a vet bill around $2-4k.

[Anthonyacat]

Your premium is rather low; I've seen them a lot higher. Do you have a high excess?

I'd like to reiterate that not everyone should go without insurance. It suits some people's risk profile excellently. But people need to be aware that the insurance companies are better at statistics than you are, and on the whole, statistically, they'll win at any premium level.

The money you pay them allows them to employ staff, rent buildings, pay out all the claims, and still make a profit most years.

So the fact that they're offering you the insurance at $39/month means that they don't think your dog will need leg surgery very often.

[Anthonyacat]

Right, so you're screwed if you have a car crash or other accident that severely injures (but not kills) both of you.

Screwed may be a bit of a strong word, we've still got savings to draw on, and the public health system to rely on, but yes we'd eventually run out of money. Again, a calculated risk.


Also health insurance generally doesn't cover pre-existing conditions ... you may find out that they're not actually very useful because of what happened in the intervening time.

Makes the decision not to buy them easier!

[ivanp]

Petplan: $100 excess, and they will pay up to $9k per year

[Anthonyacat]

Appears they've got cheaper since I last looked into it. That's good.

As with anything, just important you consider the risks instead of insuring blindly. And seriously consider what you'd think when things go wrong and you haven't insured. Will you hate yourself? Then best pay up front monthly to your insurer instead.

[andyp2010]

Yeah, I'll second that Anthony. I've got 4x house insurance with $5k excesses and 1x third party car insurance. No need for a thing more. We can also live off passive income if both of us got into a car crash tomorrow. Therefore not insuring against everyday losses but only losses that would or could bankrupt us.

[Learning]

BNZ have increased their floating, offset and term deposit rates for the second time in 7 weeks. Floating 5.9% highest of the big 7 banks.

[Don't believe the Hype]

lots more interest rate rises in the market this week

http://www.mortgagerates.co.nz/mortgage-rates.html?mrt_change=1week&mrt_col=rate_5year&mrt_dir=desc&mrt_type=0&mrt_term=&mrt_change_only=&mrt_offset=&mrt_special=&mrt_change_only=0&mrt_value=&mrt_loan=

[muppet]

Yeah, but none of the major banks.

[eri]

well that's interesting!

at the start of the year westpac sent me a letter saying i should come in an sort a small mortgage due to finish in march

did so and negotiated a rate of 4.52% for 1 yr

got a letter confirming that but noting the interest rate was "subject to change"

mortgage renewed last week and today got a letter telling me

"as rates have risen" the rolled over mortgage will now be charged at 4.72%!

so what exactly was the benefit to me of going in early to fix term + interest?

now to take paperwork down to the bank and find out what's going on...

[eri]

bank looked up the mortgage file on computer

found "note" from bank staff confirming offer was accepted!

but apparently rate not "fixed" on computer

so apologies and they are going to "sort it out"...

[Beano]

bank looked up the mortgage file on computer

found "note" from bank staff confirming offer was accepted!

but apparently rate not "fixed" on computer

so apologies and they are going to "sort it out"...

Great job you file the important documents

[Viking]

If you hadn't challenged them they would have charged their new rate. Slimy is what you call it.

[Wellington Broker]

If you hadn't challenged them they would have charged their new rate. Slimy is what you call it.

Either that or the person they spoke with in the call centre who was amongst the lowest paid in the bank entered the wrong keystroke. What you're putting down to banks being evil is more likely due to some 50 year old woman who was untrained due to cost cutting missing a fullstop and no one checking on it.
That was me almost a decade ago (except I got the numbers right). Maybe 1/4 of the people I worked with are still there in various roles and earning maybe 5-10% more on average. They're hoping to stay there until retirement, but that's unlikely given how often banks like to restructure (a bunch of my former colleagues were culled in 2014 and a bunch more in December).

That's what the service side of banks looks like, and the sales side looks a lot more threadbare now than it did 18 moths ago with cuts to MMM commissions and increases in targets.

Anyway, interest rates from BNZ last week for a home owner on good money and equity with a refi

4.49% - 1 year
4.59% - 2 years
4.89% - 3 years

Reasonable, but can get lower with other lenders if they qualify