Since this lessens the risk to lenders, more mortgages are being offered with fixed rates.
"Consumers like the idea of fixed rates, " says Megan Thibos, author of the CFPB report.
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Meanwhile, because mortgages last for several years, at fixed rates, their revenues could remain stagnant.
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Some mortgages, car loans, student loans, etc. carry variable rates, but more have fixed rates.
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Traditional home-equity loans mostly charge fixed rates, and the borrower gets the money in one lump sum.
Some countries may want to give up the option of easier adjustment for the discipline of fixed rates.
His Alerion TALF fund borrowed funds from the government at mostly fixed rates of between 2% and 2.46%.
Eventually the market won, making fixed rates too much trouble to maintain, and currencies were allowed to float.
Meanwhile, Westpac's variable rate is around 5.86% per annum, while its fixed rates are also above 5%.
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Fixed rates are like imposing a constitution on yourself to prevent bad behavior.
But with the renewal of the secondary market for jumbo mortgages, more lenders today are willing to offer fixed rates.
In the swaps market, in particular, it seems more attractive to receive floating interest rates and to pay fixed rates.
It would, however, be pretty foolish for South-East Asian economies to return to fixed rates in today's world of highly mobile capital.
The problem is that the fixed rates for royalties seem to be just too high for the revenue stream that can be found.
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If categorized as a hurricane, residential policyholders would be subject to deductibles based on a percentage of property value instead of fixed rates.
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Life insurers' biggest-selling product of the late 1980s was annuities offering fixed rates much higher than could be obtained from other fixed-income products.
This is mainly because personal borrowing in Britain is mostly at variable interest rates, whereas on the continent it is largely at fixed rates.
Mr Agius described the actions of those who had fixed rates as "abhorrent", but said at no point were these actions revealed to the board.
With their borrowing costs largely locked in for several years at fixed rates, they were little affected in the short run by the rise in rates.
For a bit of historical context, fixed rates were over 3% from the late 1990s through early 2001, and have been below 1% since May 2008.
Instead of simple thirty-year fixed rates, Bair noticed, the loans had hidden fees and exotic features, like low introductory rates that exploded after a few years.
It is no mystery why developed countries abandoned fixed rates.
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When shopping for new credit, you might come across credit card deals offering variable interest rates that are lower than the fixed rates offered on other credit cards.
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One route around this blockage is for central banks to lend directly to firms by purchasing their short-term debt at fixed rates, as the Fed started to do this week.
Fixed rates on 30-year private jumbos average 3.92% for the week ending Dec. 21, down from 4.61% a year prior, and 5.58% for the same week in December 2010, according to mortgage-info website HSH.com.
Swap-market participants exchange fixed rates for floating ones.
Fixed rates, by and large, stay the same.
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Customers in those states can choose from companies that provide such options as renewable power or a slate of pricing options, including fixed rates, rates that vary with market fluctuations, or rates that vary based on when during the day power is used.
That sounds like an attractive borrowing rate, and it may prove to be a good deal for many: If inflation and interest rates rise in the future, those who borrow at these fixed rates and invest at higher ones will earn a profit.
And because most British mortgages are at variable interest rates, or are fixed for only a few years, sharp cuts in rates in Britain eased the burden on debtors more than rate cuts did in America, where many more mortgages are at fixed rates.
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