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Mortgage health: does your home loan need a check-up?

April 14, 2011

Since the federal government released their new Competitive and Sustainable Banking System Package banning mortgage exit fees, it's predicted 2011 will be the year of the great mortgage switch.

When deciding if you want to join the race to get a better deal on your home loan, there are few things you check to see if your current mortgage is in good shape or needs to be put out of its misery.

What features you actually need? Do you need an offset account? Do you want fixed or variable interest rates? Are those extra features actually worth the premium you are paying for them?
Once you know what you need, hit up a banking comparison website and see whether you could be getting a better deal.
You can also calculate how much you could save by increasing your regular repayment just a little bit, or what it would mean to your mortgage if you could negotiate an extra 0.25 percentage point rate decrease, or any other changes, then try using a loan calculators on the government's Moneysmart website.

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