Hello, I'm Lisa Montgomery, consumer finance expert. Today we're going to be talking about
refinancing your home loan or getting a better rate. And if you're like so many Australians
out there, you probably haven't reviewed your interest rate on your home loan recently.
And you may not know that there's a better rate out there for you. But right now we're
sitting in an environment where interest rates are at their very lowest peak. And so what
that means to you is this savings to be had. So today in this video, what we're going to
do is look at some tips and tricks that are going to help you get that better rate. So
where do you begin? Well, the first step you need to take is to negotiate a better rate
with your current lender. Because if you can do that, it's going to prevent you from having
to fill out all of the paperwork that you might need to do if you're going to refinance.
What you can do is get yourself armed with all the information and knowledge that you
need to make the call. And remember, they've got teams of people just waiting to take your
call. So don't be frightened, you can make that call and you can get a better rate and
you can get it quite quickly. So if you go on and have a look at some of the other rates
that are out there, it's good to know what you're going to be aiming for in terms of
the rate you want to negotiate down to. So take a look at some of the rates that are
in the marketplace that are lower than yours. And then aim for that, and have that conversation,
it might take you a couple of times, but at least you know that you're making the effort
to get that lower rate with your current lender. Now, if they won't match it, what you can
do then is start that process of looking for a new lender, don't just check out the ones
that you know of. And those bigger banks and the ones that you hear about all the time,
there was so many lenders in the marketplace, there are new, new-age lenders that are out
there. There's also banks, second tier banks, building societies, credit unions, there's
so many opportunities for you and consider them all because they're all out there with
low rates ready to take your business. Now looking for a new home loan is not all about
interest rate, although that's a really big part of it as we know. But it's also about
the features and the benefits that you're going to get from your new arrangement. Now
they're things like redraw. So if you've been enjoying a redraw facility on your current
loan, you may want to get that with the next one. 100% offset account, if you're using
one of those, that is where you're going to put savings into an account, and 100% of the
interest that you're going to be earning on that account comes off the interest on your
home loan. If you're using an offset account at the moment, then that's a great opportunity
to have one with your new loan. And the other thing that people often forget is portability.
Portability is where you can actually take your loan account to the new property when
you sell the one that you're in. And so sometimes that's quite a good feature to have, because
it makes it a lot easier when you're actually moving house. Now, if you're interested in
finding out about the range of features and benefits that are available on home loans,
you can do that by checking out Finder. And there's a link below which will help you see
that whole range plus also compare loans. And one quick tip, make sure that you take
a look at the history your new lender has with its customers, it's really important
that you understand that they've been generous passing on interest rate cuts in the past,
because what that's going to do is give you an indication that they're going to be the
same in the future. Now, you've probably negotiated a lower interest rate or got a better one
with a new lender. And you'd be really happy with your new repayment. But I'm going to
suggest to you now that you keep your payments at the level that they were before you got
your lower rate, or you refinanced. And why would I ask you to do that? Well, it's going
to save you thousands of dollars, if you could afford it, then you can afford it now. So
my suggestion to you is that you keep your payments at that higher rate. What that's
going to do for you is it's going to reduce the term on your home loan and save you thousands
of dollars in interest. And if you want to check out just how much it can save you, go
to the calculator link on Finder, that you'll see that below. And you'll be able to see
and calculate exactly what the savings are going to be for you. As Aussies, we tend to
sit and forget our financial products, we take them out and we hope that they actually
performed for us. But you know, it's really important for you to continually review your
home loan rate, because you could find that you're paying more in comparison to everyone
else. So make sure that you're looking of what that rate is in comparison to other products
in the marketplace. Because even a half a percent, a quarter of a percent can save you
money. So if you're looking to compare home loan interest rates, then Finder has some
of the most competitive rates in Australia. So check out the link. And if you've got any
questions about refinancing, or you found this information useful, leave it in the comments
and thanks for watching today.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai