We all seem to be aiming for the same goals here.
What banks have people found to be the best and the cheapest.
I think BOQ is pretty pathetic, they lost my deed during a transfer to a different lender.
Colonial- not too bad, they dont give enough statements and dont notify when you fall behind until you are WAY behind in repayments and slug some fees for their troubles.
Homeside (NAB)- good, free savings account because i have more than $35k in loans. This includes free internet banking, unlimited eftpos ($5), this is free with a loan under $35k. Overall not too bad. They anoy me when i ring NAB and half way through it becomes too hard and they transfer to homeside.Is there a cheaper lender out there?
What are the overalls costs to me to change lenders for a cheaper deal? What happens if i pay it off quicker, the savings would be minimal.Originally posted by vyaw2003:We all seem to be aiming for the same goals here.
What banks have people found to be the best and the cheapest.
I think BOQ is pretty pathetic, they lost my deed during a transfer to a different lender.
Colonial- not too bad, they dont give enough statements and dont notify when you fall behind until you are WAY behind in repayments and slug some fees for their troubles.
Homeside (NAB)- good, free savings account because i have more than $35k in loans. This includes free internet banking, unlimited eftpos ($5), this is free with a loan under $35k. Overall not too bad. They anoy me when i ring NAB and half way through it becomes too hard and they transfer to homeside.Is there a cheaper lender out there?
What are the overalls costs to me to change lenders for a cheaper deal? What happens if i pay it off quicker, the savings would be minimal.You are probably going to get 25 different opinions about what is the best way to go here. I suggest read ’em all and make your own decision. Here’s my 2 cents worth.
It’s difficult to compare apples with apples. I have been with 3 of the Big 4, and am now with St.George (you may have read my posts on the the topic ‘finance simplification – under finance).
Their investment loan is called; Portfolio Loan – it’s an LOC, and I only get charged interest for the funds I use.
You can set it up with as many sub-accounts as you need. I have one sub-account for my Investment Loan (all my properties are grouped into this one account) and one for my personal day-to-day transactions. This makes tax-time a lot easier. Some people prefer to have a sub-account for each property, but the fees mount up.
The fees are $14 p/m per account, or pay a one-off fee of $200 p/y. This may be expensive compared to others? The fees on the investment loan are tax deductible.
The fees for changing the balance of the loan when/if you buy or sell a property is a mortgage stamp duty adjustment, and a prop valuation fee – there are no new loan application fees etc as I am simply changing my borrowing limit on the same loan.
Because the size of the loan is getting bigger, I have been able to negotiate a 1/2% less than the standard variable interest rate for the life of the loan. I am happy with that.
I think that most people on this forum would probably qualify for that – I don’t know what the qualifying limit is though.
I get a statement for each account each month (they post them to me here in L.A), and I have a St.G debit card. There are no transaction fees – only a charge for using another bank’s ATM. I only ever use a St.G ATM near my home in Aus.
The downside is they don’t have a lot of branches nationally, so if you are a prolific ATM user (I’m not), this may be a problem. I put everything on a Visa card and pay the whole balance by internet transfer every month, thus avoiding credit card interest. So my wife and I are virtually cash-less these days.
I do all my banking on-line.
I have found them to be excellent.Cheers,
Marc.
[email protected]Monthly fees are a bug bear with me. Have you thought non bank? Check out Wizard, and also have a look at ING Bank, whether via a broker or go it alone if you have nothing better to do with your time. All the best. [strum]
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