Owning your own home is a good start towards financial freedom and realizing your dreams. Why keep renting and paying off an investor’s loan when you could be paying off your own home? Assured Home Loans believes every one deserves a fair go and is committed to helping people own their own home and pay it off quickly by offering true value home loans.
Become Debt Free Sooner
Gary Williams, Assured Home Loans CEO, has a top 10 list of ways to be debt free sooner:
- Refinance – If one’s mortgage is around 5 years old or older, there are many more products in the mortgage market now and simply by changing out of your old one to a new one with a lower rate and better features, could save you thousands!
- Use a non-bank lender – Due to their lower overheads and market share desire, reputable non-bank lenders can offer loan rates quite significantly lower than the bank’s standard variable interest rate.
- Package Deals – Some banks and brokers offer a “Professional package” where the borrower can receive a discount of up to 0.7% off their home loan rate if they are borrowing in excess of $250,000. They are normally granted dependent on your income or loan size. At Assured, you don’t have to be a “Professional” to apply for one of these, plus you don’t have to borrow over $250,000! We offer a discount of 0.7% OFF the banks’ standard variable rate to anyone who is borrowing from as little as $50,000.
- Consolidate debt – it can be difficult managing rising credit cards, store credit, car loan and personal loan repayments on top of your home loan repayments each month. Consider consolidating all of this outstanding debt into your home loan at a lower interest rate and you may be surprised to find that you are able to cut your monthly commitments in half! By paying off the debt at the low home loan interest rate, you could save yourself $1000s.
- Forget the Honeymoon – Honeymoon rates are often a tool to get borrowers in the door with a very low rate for the first year. But after that first year the lender may roll your loans over into a higher variable rate above the standard variable rate that soon erases any savings you made in that first year. This is where comparison rates come in handy, as they are obliged to account for the higher rate and all other fees and charges on the loan.
- Make Believe Fix your loan now – Gary recommends, “Get ahead of any future rate rises now and fix your repayments at a higher rate now if possible,as if the rate were 2 – 2.5% higher.” This enables you to be paying your loan off quicker and save a heap of money in interest before the rate rises.
- Negotiate – it is always worth asking for a cut in the interest rate or a break in the upfront fees or ongoing charges. Gary Williams says, “No harm in asking, they can only say no, but they may say yes!” Assured offer home loans that are up to 0.7% OFF the banks’ standard variable rate with NO ongoing fees!
- Principal & Interest repayments – with an “Interest only” loan, you only pay the interest amount each month. Gary points out, “This is a useful strategy if you feel your repayment ability is threatened but remember you will not be reducing the principal in this case and you are banking on good capital growth to pay off your loan when you sell.”
- Split your loan – if you are concerned about interest rate rises, for peace of mind, consider splitting your loan now; say half on a fixed rate and the other half remaining on the variable rate. This is like a two way bet – whether rates rise or not. If you can afford it, make extra repayments on the variable rate so you are in front at all times. These funds can then be useful to redraw if needed at a later date.
- Fortnightly repayments – Set your repayments fortnightly instead of bi-monthly as you will then be making 26 payments in a year rather than 24. This in turn will save you interest costs and reduce the term of your loan.
Assured Home Loans has helped thousands of people in obtaining lower rate home loans and becoming debt free sooner.
If you’d like to talk to one of our experienced home loan consultants to assess what your finance options are,
