PACKAGE HOME LOAN

Some home loans will bundle your other banking products, such as credit cards, savings account, and offset accounts, together as one package. The bundled approach often gives you a lower home loan rate, saving you money as well as a time filling out multiple paperwork.

While every package home loan is a little different, there are some features that we see more commonly, including:

1. Annual package fee – in exchange for paying separate fees for each banking products, you’ll usually just pay one annual fee for managing your home loan package.
2. Discounted interest rate - you will usually receive a discount on the standard variable interest rate of somewhere between 0.5% - 1%.
3. Offset account - most package loans offer an offset account, which is a transaction account linked to your home loan. Any money you put into this account will offset your mortgage and reduce the amount of interest charged, allowing you to pay off your home loan faster.
4. Other financial products – a package loan may also include access to other discounted financial products offered by the same lender, such as insurance.

Pros

• Convenient to manage all your home loan and banking services under the same provider. You can save time by managing your savings, offset, and home loan account within the one banking app and transferring funds across the accounts instantaneously.
• Discounted interest rates, which can add up to significant savings in the long-term.

Cons

• The annual fee may be high and not worth the value of a discounted rate.

Is a package home loan right for me?

Generally speaking, a package home loan is suited to people who are:

• Looking for the convenience of managing all their financial products under the same lender
• Intending to borrow a large amount e.g. over $500,000, as the discount on interest rate offers significant savings

At the end of the day, if the package is convenient for you and contains all the products that you need then it may be the right solution for you. You should weigh up the annual fee against the interest rate and loan features before deciding.