Offset Accounts
What is an offset account?
An offset account is a type of bank account, which is linked to your home loan account to help you save interest on your loan.
A mortgage offset account, unlike a normal bank account which would accrue interest on your deposits and paid interest, instead reduces the interest payable on your home loan. This effectively means that the funds sitting in offset can reduce the minimum amount of interest payable, allowing your repayments to pay off your home loan faster and get you closer to becoming mortgage free.
When comparing an interest earning transaction account and an offset account – the interest earned on a transaction account generates interest generally significantly less than an offset account, meaning that you gain a far greater advantage from the use of an offset account.
Types of Offset Accounts
Fully transactional 100% offset account: this type of offset account reduces your interest requirements at 100% of the amount you have in the account – ie if you have $10,000 in your offset account, the interest payable on your home loan with reduce as if you had paid $10,000 off the home loan. This account will generally come with debit or EFTPOS cards and the ability to use online banking.
Non-transactional 100% offset account: this type of offset account functions the same as the above, the only difference is that it does not have the transaction capabilities of debit or EFTPOS cards. In general these types of offset accounts are more common with smaller lenders and mortgage manager products.
Partial Offset accounts: Less common these days, partial offset accounts do as their name implies – only providing a partial offsetting based on the funds in the account. These types are uncommon and are generally only used on fixed loans.
Can you have an offset account with a fixed loan?
Yes you can! Not all lenders will allow you to attach an offset account to a fixed loan, but a number of lenders do. It’s important to get the right advice on which financial institutions and products this can allow this as this can otherwise be a costly problem. The team at Precision Funding can give you specific advice on the right lenders to use which allow offset accounts with a fixed loan, so contact us today.
Do I need an offset account?
Generally having more features which can help you save will be helpful – but it’s worth noting that many lenders will only allow offset accounts on loans with annual or monthly fees, or slightly higher interest rates. Therefore it’s important to work with a broker who can work out what will provide the best long term results for your situation.
Precision Funding has access to low cost full featured loans which include offset accounts for both fixed and variable home loans, allowing you the best of both worlds.
Want to understand what the best offset account home loan for your next loan? Connect with us today to discuss your needs and find the best structure to meet your long term goals.