Variable Interest Rates and HELOC

In most instances, your HELOC Equity credit facility will feature a variable interest rate. This is very much akin to how your credit cards operate. Typically, a specific number of points (as in interest rate percentages) is added to the prevailing prime interest rate. If you have an outstanding credit score then your HELOC may feature the prime borrowing rate, which is usually tied to movements in popular credit indexes such as US Treasury Bonds or LIBOR (or the London Interbank Offering Rate). As these indexes fluctuate, so does the amount of interest that is due on the outstanding principal balance that you have drawn from your HELOC.

 

However, in order to ensure that during times of inflation, most HELOC agreements feature maximum interest rates. The same generally holds true of variable interest rate mortgages. If the interest rates associated with your HELOC begins to rise rapidly as a function of major changes in the credit markets then it is advisable that you repay as much of the credit facility as you can. This will substantially lower your payments. As we have discussed before, one of the primary concerns among central banks throughout the world was that interest rates would rise sharply as a result of the credit crisis, lack of securitization market, and the downward spiral of housing prices. However, central bankers have poured money into the financial system so that the prime interest rates remain at historical lows.

 

On a side note, the reason why interest rates vary is because money