fbpx

5 tips to lower your mortgage repayments in tough times

Published on December 4th, 2020
  Written by 
Bill Tsouvalas
Bill Tsouvalas is the managing director and a key company spokesperson at Savvy. As a personal finance expert, he often shares his insights on a range of topics, being featured on leading news outlets including News Corp publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, Fairfax Media publications such as the Australian Financial Review, the Seven Network and more. Bill has over 15 years of experience working in the finance industry and founded Savvy in 2010 with a vision to provide affordable and accessible finance options to all Australians. He has built Savvy from a small asset finance brokerage into a financial comparison website which now attracts close to 2 million Aussies per year and was included in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2015 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He’s passionate about helping Australians make financially savvy decisions and reviews content across the brand to ensure its accuracy. You can follow Bill on LinkedIn.
Our authors



Fact checked

At Savvy, we are committed to providing accurate information. Our content undergoes a rigorous process of fact-checking before it is published. Learn more about our editorial policy.

At Savvy, our mission is to empower you to make informed financial choices. While we maintain stringent editorial standards, this article may include mentions of products offered by our partners. Here’s how we generate income.

When hearing about “higher mortgage repayments”, every Australian begins panicking. Even though, at the moment, the rates are overall low, it couldn’t hurt saving more in order to decrease your mortgage repayments, right? For this exact reason, we have come up with five tips that will help you to accomplish that.

1. Discuss with your bank manager

Banks spend significant amounts of cash on a regular basis for advertising, in order to convince more customers to opt for their services. Therefore, it is to their advantage to keep loyal costumers satisfied with their offers. This is something you should use to your advantage by calling the bank manager to talk about your mortgage. Plus, you could consider doing some research on their current offers, and compare them with your repayment options. Ask the bank to provide you with a competitive offer.

2. Consider making mortgage repayments on a weekly basis

There’s no secret that if you make repayments on a weekly basis, you manage to decrease the life of the loan, as well as the interest attached to it. Believe it or not, even the smallest alteration in this direction can make a world of a difference in helping you lower your mortgage. What you may convey as a few dollars, will certainly add up as time passes by.

3. Create an offset account

Another great way of decreasing your mortgage repayments is to open an offset account. Generally speaking, an offset account functions as a regular transactional account that aims at diminishing the amount of interest attached to your home loan. Certainly, one of the main advantages of creating an offset account is that it doesn’t gain compoundable interest. This way, you won’t be required to pay any extra charges for its administration. So, by directing your income directly in this account, you can seriously shorten the lifespan of the loan.

4. Mortgage refinancing

Take the time to compare your current loan with other offers that are available at the present moment. You might stand a good chance of benefiting from better offers than your present one; perhaps another lender is more willing to negotiate a better deal. There are various online calculators that may come in handy in helping you settle whether refinancing your mortgage can contribute to lowering your mortgage repayments.

5. Use your equity

If you already managed to pay off part of your mortgage, you are entitled to have equity. Equity is conveyed as the difference between the present value of the house and the amount of money you owe the lender. Let’s say that your house is valued at $500,000, and you owe $150,000. Thus, your equity is of $350,000, a sum that you can use to re-borrow without being required to go through the run-of-the-mill process of loan approval. The greater majority of lenders would approve to permit the borrower to use his/her equity as collateral. Using your equity wisely can utterly help you to make mortgage repayments sooner.

Did you find this page helpful?

Yes
No
Thanks for your feedback!

This guide provides general information and does not consider your individual needs, finances or objectives. We do not make any recommendation or suggestion about which product is best for you based on your specific situation and we do not compare all companies in the market, or all products offered by all companies. It’s always important to consider whether professional financial, legal or taxation advice is appropriate for you before choosing or purchasing a financial product.

The content on our website is produced by experts in the field of finance and reviewed as part of our editorial guidelines. We endeavour to keep all information across our site updated with accurate information.

Approval for home loans is always subject to our lender’s terms, conditions and qualification criteria. Lenders will undertake a credit check in line with responsible lending obligations to help determine whether you’re in a position to take on the loan you’re applying for.

The interest rate, comparison rate, fees and monthly repayments will depend on factors specific to your profile, such as your financial situation, as well as others, such as the loan’s size and your chosen repayment term. Costs such as broker fees, redraw fees or early repayment fees, and cost savings such as fee waivers, aren’t included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts may result in a different comparison rate.

In this article

Share this article

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on pinterest

Looking for a home loan?

Compare Australia’s reputed home loan lenders with us and save.

* Terms and conditions and lending criteria apply.

Smart money saving tips

Subscribe to our newsletter.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy

Related articles

Easily compare home loan options today

We compare home loan options for you so you can be assured you’re seeing the most competitive interest rates available in Australia.