Thinking about refinancing? As interest rates rise, so do the hurdles you need to clear. You might want to refinance soon to avoid potentially missing out.
When was the last time you refinanced?
If the answer is “never”, or you can’t remember, there’s a good chance you’re paying a higher interest rate than you could be due to the “loyalty tax”.
As proven by the RBA, the banks don’t think you’re paying attention, and as such, they only offer their lowest rates to new customers to win them over.
A recent RateCity analysis found that customers who stay loyal to their bank could be hit with an extra $5,101 in interest over the next three years alone (based on a $500,000 loan taken out with CBA in 2019).
For a $750,000 loan that would be an extra $7,652 in interest, and for a $1 million loan, it’s $10,202 extra.
This is a big reason why owner-occupier refinancing across the country rose 9.7% in June to a new record high of $12.7 billion, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Great. But why is refinancing now so important?
Ok, so when you refinance, your new lender must assess something called your “home loan serviceability”.
That’s your ability to meet your home loan repayments at an interest rate of at least 3% above the rate you’re being offered.
And as you might have seen on the news, the big four banks are tipping the RBA’s official cash rate to increase from 1.85% in August to anywhere between 2.60% (Commbank forecast) and 3.35% (ANZ forecast) by November.
That means as interest rates go up, so too will the hurdle you’ll need to clear for home loan serviceability when refinancing.
The sooner you refinance, the lower the hurdle you’ll need to clear to ensure you’re not stuck with your current rate and lender.
How to explore your refinancing options
This is the easy bit! Get in touch today, and we’ll help you get the ball rolling.
And even if you don’t want to refinance with another lender, you can always ask your current lender to review your rate, indicating that you’re prepared to refinance if they don’t come to the table.
After all, loyalty should be a two-way street!
So if you’d like to find out more about what options are available, give us a call or flick us an email today – we want to help you through the period ahead as much as possible!
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