Thinking of Refinancing? Here’s How to Get the Best Deal for You

If you’ve had your home loan since before Trump was President, and you haven’t checked in to make sure you’re still getting a competitive rate, now is the time to do something about it. This is the advice from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), who warns that those who have a mortgage that’s at least three years old are likely to be paying too much for their home loan. But what exactly is the definition of “too much”, you may be wondering? “Too much” is when you’re paying even one dollar more than you need to be paying for your home loan – why pay more for the exact same product when you don’t need to? We can help you work out whether your current home loan deal is costing you too much in a moment – but first, here’s how much you could save. Check your loanScore now

Big savings for borrowers who refinance

The ACCC’s Home Loan Price Inquiry Final Report includes a number of recommendations for lenders to be more transparent and to reduce barriers to switching for borrowers. This is because, according to the ACCC report, around half of all variable rate loans are at least four years old (as at December 2019). If you’re one of those borrowers with an older mortgage, with so many competitive home loan offers in the market right now, you have the potential to save thousands of dollars by switching your loan. The ACCC provided an example that stated an existing borrower with an older $250,000 loan is likely to be paying 0.58% more than a new borrower in 2020, and is therefore paying $17,000 more for their home loan (over the life of the loan). The Australian Financial Review also reviewed this data but put the savings closer to $11,700. Either way, it’s clear – there are big savings to be made by switching your home loan to a better deal. Our own calculations confirm this. Using our refinancing calculator, we calculated that if you have a five-year-old variable rate loan and you’re paying 3.19% for your home loan, you could switch lenders and drop that rate to 2.19%. UNO expert broker Paul Sealy calculates that with such an interest rate reduction on a $500,000 loan balance, your monthly repayments would drop from $2,421 to $2,166 – a whopping saving of $255 a month. That’s $3,060 per year in your account balance, instead of the bank’s coffers. And all you have to do to make this massive saving is switch to a better deal by refinancing.

How to get started today

Think about it: if you were at the fuel station putting petrol in your car, and the advertised rate was $1.10 per litre, would you be happy to pay $1.30 per litre? No one likes paying more than they need to for anything, and when it comes to your mortgage, overpaying can cost you thousands – even tens of thousands, in the long run. The good news is, it only needs to take 2 minutes to run a quick loanScore check. It’s fast, free, and in a matter of minutes you’ll have an idea of how competitive your current mortgage is, and how much you could save by refinancing. Book in a quick call with our customer care team.Check your loanScore nowImage credit: wayhomestudio Book a call in with UNO