SuperUser posted on January 08, 2012 05:17
Ross Greenwood
Source: The Daily Telegraph
December 09, 201112:00AM
THE standard variable rate is a fraud, a hoax, a joke.
It's certainly not what you should be paying. So yesterday all four of the big banks finally passed on the quarter of a per cent Reserve Bank rate cut. Big deal - or not such a big deal, as the case may be.
No person with a half-decent credit rating and half a brain in their head should be paying the standard variable home loan interest rate.
And if they have even a cursory look around, they may be able to gain a cut of up to 1 per cent.
For example take NAB.
After the 0.25 per cent cut, its standard variable rate is now 7.22 per cent. But if you are a reasonable customer who takes out a "Choice" package, your rate is cut to 6.52 per cent. That 0.7 per cent is worth more than $60,000 over the life of a $300,000 mortgage so it's worth the phone call to ask for it.
But it gets even better.
Take Mark Bouris's Yellow Brick Road home loan company. He's supposed to be small and not able to compete with the banks.
His YBR's standard variable rate is 6.45 per cent, which is where you can see the discounted NAB mortgage rate become more realistic.
If you borrow more than $500,000 from YBR, then it's likely you'll get a hefty discount of up to 0.4 per cent.
In other words, a Sydney household could be paying just over 6 per cent on their mortgage tonight if they are smart, make a few calls and bargain hard. One last thing. Don't worry too much who you borrow from. Remember, when you borrow, you are the risk, not the lender.
Time to fight the financial system and set your own standard