Archive for the ‘Interest Rates’ Category

News just in is that the Reserve Bank has left Official Cash Rates on hold for the fifth consecutive months which is great news. It’s now up to the banks!

For months now, we have been reporting on the competition that existed with Fixed Rates and even started to comment on how the rates were generally starting to increase.

The trickle that was there is no growing in size and whilst it is certain not a floodgate, at least four lenders – Adelaide Bank, Citibank, St George and Westpac – all increased their fixed rates in the last day or so.

The main increases have been in the 2 – 3 year fixed rate terms and have been in the vicinity of .20 and 0.30%.

If you would like to know more information, then just contact us and we will happily help.

PLAN Lending and Homeloans Limited yesterday announced reductions in their Fixed Rates for 2 and 3 year terms of 0.20%.

This was reassuring as it follows hot on the heels of the Commonwealth Bank increasing their rates by 0.20% and 0.25% for 2 and 3 years respectively and shows that there is still healthy competition in the home loan market.

PLAN Lending tier their rates based on the LVR involved (see our definitions for an explanation) but for a fully verified loan with an LVR of 65% or less, you can opt for a Fixed Rate at 6.85% for three years at this time.

The Commonwealth Bank has just announced increases to their 2 and 3 year Fixed Rates of 0.2% and 0.25% respectively. It will be interesting to see if they are on their own or others will follow.

AMP have just released news of a drop in their Basic Variable Home Loan rate to 6.64% – a drop of 13 basis points.

This is great news for the home loan industry and just reinforces how much competition there is available in the market place.

AMP have also just announced a 3 year Fixed Rate of 6.99% which is also fantastic news.