Use comparison tables
When searching for your first or next home loan, the comparison tables found on RateCity can help you compare the key factors of different mortgage options side by side (including cashbacks), so you can confidently compare apples with apples.
Check the interest rates
Carefully compare the interest rates of any home loans offering cashback deals to ensure the cashback value is not outweighed by the cost of higher interest charges.
Look at the fees
Your home loan may charge upfront fees and ongoing fees as standard, and if you refinance from a fixed rate loan too early, you may also have to pay a break fee. It’s worth looking at a home loan’s comparison rate, which combines its interest charges and standard fees into a single percentage. While comparison rates are all based on a $150,000 principal and interest loan paid over 25 years for consistency, they may still help to indicate the loan’s ‘true’ overall cost, and how this may affect the cashback’s value.
Consider the features
Lenders may offer some helpful home loan features, such as an offset account, a redraw facility or unlimited free additional repayments. If flexibility is important to you, it may be worth comparing home loans that offer these features as well as cashback.
Look at the lender
It's not enough to love the cashback you're being offered - you need to like the lender as well. Read reviews online and seek out word of mouth on their customer service, innovative fintech, and branch access, especially if you rely on face-to-face customer service.
Calculate the value
Some mortgage lenders may charge higher interest rates or fees for cashback loans than for more basic ‘no-frills’ home loan options. You may want to calculate whether the benefit of cashback outweighs any of these additional costs. A Home Loan Repayment Calculator could help you compare the cashback amount to the potential savings offered by a lower interest rate, and work out which option may offer you the most value.
Compare Real Time Ratings™
Finally, to help you narrow down your shortlist of options, you may want to look at each home loan product’s Real Time Ratings™ score. Real Time Ratings™ is RateCity’s rating system that ranks home loans out of five, based on their cost and flexibility. Unlike other comparison pages which rank their products once or twice a year, Real Time Ratings™ results are updated regularly to help them stay as accurate as possible.