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Borrower

Borrowers in the dark about their interest rate

4 minute read
The Adviser

Staff Reporter

Almost one third of all Australians have no idea what their mortgage interest rate is, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by Aussie, found a similar percentage of investors are also unaware of their interest rates, even as they seek to secure their financial future through property.

"This statistic is really worrying," Aussie founder and chairman John Symond said.

"People need to be constantly questioning their rate. It could be just by speaking to their broker about a simple mortgage health check to see how much they could save,” he said.

Of those surveyed who were able to nominate their interest rate within a quarter percentage band, 23.5 per cent of home owners and 23.2 per cent of property investors were paying more than 7.0 per cent.

"Those who have had less than half a per cent rate cut on their variable rate since November or pay more than 6.5 per cent are simply out of market,” Mr Symond said.

"When you consider the savings between 7.0 per cent and 6.0 per cent on a home loan of $300,000 is around $197 per month, and take that over the life of your loan, that is about six years and eight months cut from the loan term and several thousand dollars saved in repayments. I urge all borrowers to be more attentive to their home loan rate."

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Comments (2)

  • <p>I see a little irony here, we are required to be members of FBAA or MFAA, we are required to have Cert IV and the Diploma yet if people do not even know what rate they are on do they really care about our qualifications ? I dare say all they care about is the net benefit to them we can provide. Peter is correct, Wayne Swan always states that if people are unhappy with their lender to switch banks however given that sometimes the rate difference could be negligible.</p>
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  • <p>Whilst this is a concern for people who would be paying 6.5% or more right now, of most poeple I don't think it's a big deal. As a mortgage broker, home owner and investor I have numerous loans and I can't tell you what all the rates are without looking them up!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can tell you that they're competitive and affordable. There's also little reason to refinance them as the cost of doing so is unlikely to be recovered by a 0.1% saving. This would also be the same of most of the mortgage holders I meet.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Aussie is simply trying to stimulate bussiness by churning existing mortgages. I see many brokers who will attempt to do this for a new customer, putting their need of a commission ahead of the customers' real need.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes the right advice to give is simply that the existing mortgage is working well, is competitive, has the features they need and there's no need to change.</p>
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