Convenience could be costing you on your home loan

Home owners could be missing out on thousands of dollars in savings by leaving their home loan with their big bank just for convenience, according to online lender loans.com.au.

Citing an ASIC report released this week, Managing Director Marie Mortimer said that approximately 60% of borrowers chose to get a home loan with a lender they had an existing relationship with and by far the strongest factor influencing that decision was convenience.

“It is amazing that in this day and age, when it is so easy to shop around for a home loan online and apply for a home loan online, we still have 60% of borrowers settling for an overpriced loan from their existing bank,” Ms Mortimer said.

“It shows that many borrowers still don’t understand just how simple it is to get a home loan online and how big the savings really are.”

To combat the convenience tax that people are paying, loans.com.au has launched a special web calculator that makes it easy to see how much they could save by refinancing from the big four.

The calculator, which is part of their new “Compare, Save and Win” campaign, offers the added bonus that users will go into the draw to win a $20,000 cash prize.

Managing Director Marie Mortimer said loans.com.au had launched the new campaign to encourage people to inform themselves about the life-changing savings that many people could make on their home loans.

“A surprising number of people currently with a big bank can’t even tell you what interest rate they are paying on their home loan let alone how much that adds up to over time,” Ms Mortimer said.

“We want to spur them to take action because once they see the amount they could save – which is typically around $50,000 over the life of a $400,000 loan – they are far more likely to make the effort to get a better value loan and enjoy the benefits.”

The “Compare, Save and Win” competition is open both to potential refinancers, and to purchasers who are looking for a home loan.

“Whether they get a loan with us or not, I think the calculator makes very interesting viewing because it compares our loans with each of the Big 4 banks individually,” Ms Mortimer said.

“It is a small piece of tech but often it’s clearing away the small obstacles that really helps people move forward.”

Ms Mortimer said the big bank oligopoly would only be shaken up when Australians stopped assuming that walking into their branch was the natural first step when they needed a loan.

“Australians have been paying a big interest rate tax to the banks for years and its time it stopped,” Ms Mortimer said.

“We have a small home loan rate the Big 4 can’t match, so this is a great time to switch.”

Loans.com.au is currently offering a variable rate home loan starting at a tiny 3.03% (3.05% comparison rate). Loans.com.au is Australia’s leading online lender and is backed by parent company Firstmac, Australia’s largest non-bank lender.

Click here to enter the competition.

ABOUT LOANS.COM.AU

Founded in 2011, loans.com.au has grown to become Australia’s largest online lender in the fintech space, with thousands of happy customers across Australia. Loans.com.au is backed by the financial strength of our parent company Firstmac, which is a leading non-bank lender. Firstmac has been operating successfully for almost 40 years and it has $12 billion in mortgages under management.

Media Contact: Duncan Macfarlane on 0434 184 264