Replay your loan through real New Zealand mortgage rates and see what each fixing strategy would have cost you, from any start date to today.
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| Strategy | Interest paid | Average rate | Principal paid | Total paid | Still owing |
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Separate from your loan above: this uses all the history, on standard rates, which go back 20 years. Special rates only go back to 2017.
This comparison always uses every period since January 2005, whatever start date and rates you chose above. The periods overlap, so together they draw on about 20 years of history with three big events in it: the 2008 financial crisis, the record lows of 2020–21 and the 2022–23 spike. Treat the percentages as a guide to how each strategy has behaved, not as odds. Most borrowers get special rates, which have averaged about half a percentage point below these standard rates. Since 2017, standard and special rates have picked the same cheapest strategy in about 9 out of 10 periods.
How this works. Rates are the Reserve Bank's monthly averages of banks' advertised first-mortgage rates for new borrowers: standard rates, and special rates (the discounted rates most borrowers get, available since 2017). Each fixed strategy refixes at that term's average rate when its fixed term ends. "Always fix at the lowest rate" picks whichever fixed term (6 months to 5 years) has the lowest rate at each refix, taking the shorter term if two tie. Repayments are recalculated each month at the current rate over the remaining term. Extra payments shorten the loan rather than lowering the repayment.
These are historical averages, not a quote or a forecast, and not personalised financial advice. Your actual rate depends on your bank and circumstances. Sources: RBNZ standard rates (B20) and special rates (B21).