I gotta renew and I have access to both fixed (6.08%/5y) and variable (6.80%/5y) rates.

The thing about variable rate is that it will not change your monthly payments when the interest rate changes, it changes the amortization (ie: how fast or slow) you’ll end up paying your mortgage according to the interest rate.

It’s a gamble though, personally I’d rather go with fixed at the moment. I did save a bit with the variable rate when I renewed in 2014 and the interest rate ended up going down.