Home Loans with an Offset Account
Compare offset home loans
Lender | |||||||||||||
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| FEATUREDUNLIMITED REDRAWSSPECIAL OFFER | Smart Booster Home Loan Discounted Variable - 2yr (LVR < 80%)
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Smart Booster Home Loan Discounted Variable - 2yr (LVR < 80%)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| ZERO APPLICATION FEESFEE FREE OFFSET | Owner Occupier Accelerates - Celebrate (LVR < 60%) (Principal and Interest)
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Owner Occupier Accelerates - Celebrate (LVR < 60%) (Principal and Interest)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| FEATURED100% FULL OFFSET ACCOUNTNO APPLICATION FEE OR ONGOING FEES | Low Rate Home Loan - Prime (Principal and Interest) (Owner Occupied) (LVR < 60%)
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Low Rate Home Loan - Prime (Principal and Interest) (Owner Occupied) (LVR < 60%)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| NO APPLICATION FEES | Yard Home Loan (Principal and Interest) (Special) (LVR < 80%)
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Yard Home Loan (Principal and Interest) (Special) (LVR < 80%)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| 100% FULL OFFSET ACCOUNT | Ocean Owner Occupied (Amounts < $1m, LVR < 60%)
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Ocean Owner Occupied (Amounts < $1m, LVR < 60%)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| NO UPFRONT OR ONGOING FEES | Owner Occupier Accelerates - Evaporate (LVR 60%-70%) (Principal and Interest)
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Owner Occupier Accelerates - Evaporate (LVR 60%-70%) (Principal and Interest)
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| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| 100% FULL OFFSET ACCOUNT | |||||||||||||
Offset Package Home Loan (Principal and Interest) (LVR < 60%) | |||||||||||||
| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
Offset Variable Owner Occupier Principal & Interest (LVR 70%-80%) | |||||||||||||
| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| EASY DIGITAL APPLICATION | |||||||||||||
Neat Variable Home Loan (Principal and Interest) (LVR 70%-80%) | |||||||||||||
| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| NO UPFRONT OR ONGOING FEES | |||||||||||||
Low Rate Home Loan - Prime (Principal and Interest) (Owner Occupied) (LVR < 80%) | |||||||||||||
| Variable | More details | ||||||||||||
| 100% FULL OFFSET ACCOUNT | |||||||||||||
Offset Package Home Loan (Principal and Interest) (LVR 70%-80%) | |||||||||||||
- Fast turnaround times, can meet 30-day settlement
- For purchase and refinance, min 20% deposit
- No ongoing or monthly fees, add offset for 0.10%
Base criteria of: a $400,000 loan amount, variable, fixed, principal and interest (P&I) home loans with an LVR (loan-to-value) ratio of at least 80%. However, the ‘Compare Home Loans’ table allows for calculations to be made on variables as selected and input by the user. All products will list the LVR with the product and rate which are clearly published on the Product Provider’s web site. Monthly repayments, once the base criteria are altered by the user, will be based on the selected products’ advertised rates and determined by the loan amount, repayment type, loan term and LVR as input by the user/you. *The Comparison rate is based on a $150,000 loan over 25 years. Warning: this comparison rate is true only for this example and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate. Rates correct as of May 29, 2022. View disclaimer.
Guides & resources:
What is a mortgage offset account and how does it work?
A mortgage offset account is a transaction (or savings) account linked to your home loan. The money in this account is “offset” against the balance of your loan, meaning you only pay interest on the difference.
For example, if Louis had a loan of $450,000 and had $50,000 in a linked offset account, he would only have to pay interest on $400,000.
As the balance in this offset account grows, the amount you save on interest also grows, which could save you money and cut the amount of time it takes you to pay off your loan.
You can see for yourself how effective an offset account can be by using Savings.com.au's Offset Calculator.
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What types of loans can offset accounts be used with?
Offset accounts can be linked to either a variable or fixed rate home loan, with some lenders requiring an offset account for a portion of a fixed term.
100% offset account
While there are different variants of offset accounts available, by far and away the most common is the 100% balance offset account. As used in the offset account example above, the total offset account balance is subtracted from the outstanding loan balance before interest is calculated. Because of the ‘saving’ nature of a 100% offset account, the balance in the offset account doesn’t earn any interest (eg. this would effectively be ‘double-dipping’).
What are the potential disadvantages of an offset account?
There are some offset account disadvantages to be aware of. Mainly, home loans with offset accounts can have higher interest rates and fees than loans that don’t have them (more info on this in the next section).
Also, some offset accounts only partially offset the interest costs on funds in the account. For example, $50,000 in a 50% partial offset account would only offset the interest costs on $25,000 of the outstanding loan balance.
How much do you save with an offset account?
To reap the benefits of an offset account and accumulate the most savings, the amount of money deposited into the account must be consistently at a reasonable level ($100 isn’t going to do it for you!).
One of the ways that people manage to maximise the amount in their offset accounts is by putting all of their work income into their offset account and using a credit card for their expenses/purchases made throughout the month. Critically, they then make a lump sum payment from the offset account once a month at the time ‘due’ from their credit card provider to balance the credit card back to $0 (and hence avoiding any interest charges and fees from the credit card itself).
As with many financial product features, there are often certain types of fees and premiums involved. And while saving money long term is the focus here, you have to make sure you do the basic sums to ensure that the fees don’t end up costing you more than the amount you save by reducing the interest bill on your home loan!
Some of the common fees and premiums involved with offset accounts can include:
- Standard transaction fees
- Application/establishment fees
- Higher monthly account keeping fees
- Higher interest rates
Case study: Offset account
Frequently Asked Questions
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