Account List

Please note the list below is not attempting to be exhaustive list of all loan products on the market. There are hundreds of loan products available today and they are constantly changing. We are yet to find an account that the Home Loan Checker cannot handle as all the different products on the market fall into one or more of the categories below. The lenders give different names to their products for marketing purposes in an attempt to differentiate their loan from the next. 

• Off-set accounts - These are accounts where the interest earned on the balance of one account (frequently a savings or every day account) is off-set against the interest charged on the balance of another account (frequently a home mortgage account). These accounts tend to have one of the highest error rates.

• Split loan accounts. These are typically a loan where one part of the loan has a fixed interest and the other part has variable interest. These are just two standard loans rolled in together (see below).

• Line of credit accounts - These are the account frequently promoted as the way to "pay of your loan in 8 years". They are usually organised so that your salary is paid directly into your line of credit account and then you withdraw only the money you need. The remainder of your money reduces the interest charged on your home loan. These loans are the "second generation" of the off-set account. Due to the frequent transactions on these accounts they also tend to have a very high error rate.

• Principal and interest - These loans are where your repayments to the lender have an interest component and a principal component. The principal component is what reduces the balance of your loan.  

• Interest only - These are loans where they lender requires only the interest be repaid and not the principal or balance of the loan.

• Fixed interest - the interest on the account is set at a specific rate for a specific time period.

• Variable interest - the interest rate may be changed from time to time by the lender usually in relation to announcements made by the reserve bank.

• Investment loans - these loans are just one of the above loan types but for investment purposes. Frequently lenders charge slightly higher interest rates on these loans.

• Redraw Facilities - some loans allow you to "redraw" any extra money you have paid off you loan over and above the amount that you are required to have paid. Obviously, when you redraw it has implications for the amount of interest you pay and needs to be tracked.