very true Marydean! I just find it all so scary!
Another option I was thinking about was staying variable but making our repayment amounts the same as if it were fixed (ie paying $100 per week extra on top of our current variable amount) that way we'd wack more off our principal and if times got tight we would be ahead and could re-draw if absolutely necessary.

I'm just really hoping that if we did this our variable rate wouldn't go much over 7.5% within the next 3 years (ours is currently 5.39%)

These talks of 0.5% rises and 7 rises over the next 12 months just makes me nervous!