Mates Rates is thrilled to announce that our monthly rebates paid into our customer’s home loans has exceeded the $300,000 mark annually.

That makes for a lot of happy Mates Rates customers that we help pay off their loans each month!

The whole team would like to thank all our clients for their continuing support.

If you broker isn’t sharing their commission with you, contact our team for a quote on 1300 55 81 61.

Updated 10th February 2011

Full Featured Variable Home Loan
	Bank Lender – Widely Available 4 Star CANNEX Home Loan Star Rating Discounts and rebates are for the life of your home loan/mortgage Get Approved Now – Call 1300 55 81 61 To find the 3 Hottest Mortgages in this class call 1300 55 81 61 or click here.

3 Year Fixed Rate Home Loan
	Bank Lender – Widely Available Discounts and rebates are for the life of your home loan/mortgage Able to be capped or locked at application Get Approved Now – Call 1300 55 81 61 The 3 Year fixed rate with this lender is 5.99% plus our rebates starting at 0.15% year 1+ To find the 3 Hottest Mortgages in this class call 1300 55 81 61 or click here.

5 Year Fixed Rate Home Loan
	Bank Lender – Widely Available Discounts and rebates are for the life of your home loan/mortgage Able to be capped or locked at application Get Approved Now – Call 1300 55 81 61 The 5 Year fixed rate with this lender is 6.74% plus our rebates starting at 0.15% year 1+ To find the 5 Hottest Mortgages in this class call 1300 55 81 61 or click here.

To find the 3 hottest Lines of Credit, 10 and 15 Year Fixed rates or any other home loan product, click here.

The rates quoted here are based on the average new loan of $350,000 and a term of 25 years.  Last updated 14-10-11

WARNING: This comparison rate applies only to the example or examples given. Different amounts and terms will result in different comparison rates. Costs such as redraw fees or early repayment fees, and cost savings such as fee waivers, are not included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan. The ‘Total Advantage’ saving was calculated on the basis that the loan would be maintained for the full term of 30 years (unless otherwise advised or discussed), not refinanced with another lender during that period and make no repayments in excess of the minimum monthly payments fixed for the loan during that period.[contact-form]

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“The main difference is how the brokers lender panel is selected. Companies such as Aussie and Mortgage Choice prioritise lenders and loan products offering higher commissions, whereas any lender willing to pay any level of commission is able to join the Mates Rates lender panel” said Mates Rates Founder, Trent Lee.

When it comes to Fixed Rate mortgages, Mates Rates offers a choice of more than 30 different 5 Star products, whereas you can only get about 8 through Aussie.

“A lot of people nervous about interest rates are looking to fix their loans and Mates Rates is a clear leader. But there’s more to it than that. We also offer home owners around 25% more Variable Rate loans awarded 5 Stars as well which means borrowers get a better range and better price right across the board.”

With Mates Rates, you can get a 5 Star home loan for a  2 Star price as the independent ratings from CANNEX don’t include savings from Ongoing Rebate Payments. These broker payments can reduce the cost of an average size loan by around $35,000.

“When you consider the Pricing Score in CANNEX star ratings contributes up to 85% of the Star Rating, Mates Rates also has hundreds of other home loans that would jump a star or two from the benefit of ORP”, Trent added

CANNEX state their star ratings system is designed to help consumers increase their chances of finding the right product, recommending borrowers add 5 Star products to their shopping lists.

Almost 400 of mortgage lender products available at Mates Rates acheived a CANNEX Star Rating of 3 or more, with several lenders choosing not to participate in the CANNEX survey.

Click here to download the Canstar CANNEX Home Loan Star Ratings.

ANZ and National Australia Bank confirmed they would increase variable home loan rates by 25 basis points – matching the RBA’s 25 basis point rate increas. It is expected Commonwealth Bank  and Westpac will quickly follow the trend. Althought no announcement has been made, both have said their rates remain under review.

In a statement, NAB advised that its increase to variable home loan rates will also be effective from 12th October. 

ANZ has announced in a separate statement that it will increase variable mortgage rates by 25 basis points for new and existing customers from 12th October as well as making changes for Fixed Rate home loans for new borrowers.

Although the ANZ has increased it’s shorter terms by the 0.25% hike, longer terms have received smaller increases, with ANZ cutting its 10-year term rate by 25 basis points to 8.94%.

ANZ’s changes to the 10 year rate offers borrowers an insight as to what it’s experts are predicting.

The move takes ING right up to the front of the pack when it comes to 5 Year Fixed Rates. This great news is backed by your ability to split with their fee free home loan product, the Mortgage Simplifier, enabling a low cost mix of certainty and flexibility.

Mortgage rebates for ING products arranged at Mates Rates start at 0.15% p.a. stepping up to 0.20% p.a from the 4th year for the rest of the loan making ING DIRECT at Mates Rates one of the best value fixed rate products currently available.

My name is Trent Lee and as Founder of Mates Rates Mortgage Brokers, I would like to say welcome.

Like the Team at Mates Rates, I see the world differently to most brokers, because I am always thinking that there has to be a better way. Not a better way to make massive profits. A better way to help you.

I promise that by using Mates Rates Mortgage Brokers:

• You get the largest rebate available, saving you up to TEN times more than many refund home loans.
• Your broker doesn’t work on commission. They are full time employed, experienced  professionals.
• You get plain English help with one of the largest lender and product ranges available.
• You are supported by a team of dedicated professionals striving to help you acheive.
• We will continue to listen to you.

I am so passionate about what Mates Rates offers I still work in the business whenever I can and the Team will continue to develop new ways to give better help than any other mortgage broker, bank or lender.

Thank you for visiting and I hope Mates Rates is all that you could want and more.

Trent Lee
Founder

(02) 43500 900

A brief history

2001 Search begins to find things I could fix

2002 Work begins on a better value mortgage broker method

2003 Patent application lodged for commission refund home loans model

2004 Mortgage broker launched as bSmart

2004 In an Australian first bSmart appears on Today Tonight refunding Upfronts and Trailing Commissions

2004 Customer suggests bSmart is hard to remember and suggests Mates Rates.

2005 Renamed Mates Rates because the Customer made sense

2006 Mates Rates develops simple, standard customer reports providing leading edge transparency

2007 Mates Rates appears on Today Tonight

2008 Mates Rates Featured on Channel Nine’s ‘Extra’ in a segment called ’Refund Home Loans’

2009 In another Australian first, Mates Rates introduces CANNEX star ratings to mortgage selection criteria

Legal Notices

© Copyright 2009 Mates Rates Mortgage Brokers.
ABN: 16 110 731 238 Australian Credit Licence No. 382805
Phone 1300 55 81 61

Experienced First Home Owner Help

Each of our mortgage brokers has a wealth experience helping first home buyers throughout Australia to make their first home a reality. Your dedicated broker makes it simple by

1. helping you choose an ideal home loan from hundreds of different products offered by leading lenders
2. completing all the necessary paperwork for you
3. helping you understand the other costs like stamp duty, conveyance and bank fees
4. helping you apply for the First Home Owners Grant if you are eligible

Put simply our mortgage brokers understand you and are paid professionals who help make your home ownership dream become reality.

Your Mates Rates mortgage broker listens and talks

When you first talk with your broker you’ll be asked a number of important questions about your financial position. The more accurate this information is, the better your broker will be able to help you. All information is confidential. The first call usually takes less than half an hour and your broker then leaves you to get on with life, whist the get to work tracking down the best loans from our panel.

With a wealth of experience, your broker determines the features and requirements using independent loan evaluation software and information to find which loans are most suitable for you from the many lenders on our panel. Your broker looks at things like repayments, interest rates as well as, features like offset and redraw facilities and how much you can borrow from each lender.

Simple help in plain English

Your broker then prepares a written report which outlines the best 3 options Mates Rates can offer, including important information such as an explanation of features offered, different lender fees and mortgage rebates we can offer for each solution. The report includes a personalised Comparison Rate as well, to help you better understand the different overall cost of each loan from each lender.

After that your broker will discuss the options and, when you have chosen your loan, will complete all the necessary forms for approval by the lender and you’re off and running.

Just getting ready?

If you haven’t found the home of your dreams, your broker can arrange pre-approval so you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing how much you can borrow.

In today’s competitive housing market, you’ll have a head start on other purchasers and with Mates Rates, you’ll stay in front.

Whilst the core loan products are quite stable, the Australian mortgage market doesn’t stand still. New deals, special rates and limited offers come and go almost every day. So much so, interest rate websites can’t cope.

Your Mates Rates mortgage broker has access to up to the minute information on 400+ different mortgage products from our leading panel of mortgage lenders. Using this information, leading edge independent tools and a wealth of professional experience, your mortgage broker ranks these home loan deals to find the right loan and lender for you.

What types of home loans are available?

The information on this page will help you understand the basic loan types, although the features, how much they cost and how they affect you varies lender to lender.

When you are ready to find a home loan with someone you can trust, talk to a professional.

Request a free appointment – No charge, no obligation and with the comfort of a time and place that suits you. You can also call us on 1300 55 81 61.

Principal and Interest Home Loan

Principal is the actual money you have borrowed and interest is the fee lenders charge you whilst you owe this money. A Principal and Interest home loan is simply one which includes an allocation for repayment of the principal together with the interest charge in your regular minimum repayment.

Pros:

• Your loan is repaid with each instalment with reduces interest costs and increases the equity in your property.
• Minimum repayments are higher as they include the interest charge together with an allocation for principal.

Cons:

Interest-Only Home Loan

The name says it all. Repayment of the principal is deferred for an agreed period (usually 1-5 years) and during this time you only pay the interest charges which results in a lower minimum payment as there is no allocation for principal. At the end of the interest only period – usually one to five years – you must start making Principal and Interest Repayments over the remaining term of the loan, although some lenders will also allow you to extend the interest only period.

Pros:

• Payments are lower during the interest only period offering you time to adjust or freeing up money to renovate or improve the property.
• For investment properties, it lowers payment commitments enabling you to maximise payments any non-deductible debt
• Maximises mortgage rebates if you take an Ongoing Rebate Payment
• Payments increase at the end of the Interest Only period
• Overall interest costs wind up more expensive than paying Principal and Interest
• Many lenders assess your ability to repay the loan only on the principal and interest repayments over a shorter repayment term which can reduce your borrowing power

Cons:

Basic Variable Home Loan

Interest charged on all variable rate mortgages moves up or down in accordance with movements in interest rates, which are set by your lender with some guidance from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Basic variable loans have a lower interest rate and generally have fewer loan features than a standard variable loan. Over the years, basic variables have increased in flexibility with many accepting extra payments and allowing redraw which is the ability to take out any extra money that you have put in,

Features and flexibility vary wildly with basic variable mortgages with some prohibiting extra payments, whilst others include a 100% offset account. Very few have sufficient features that will allow you to minimise interest costs for that loan without quite a bit of hard work with manual transfers often being required for redraw and extra payments,

Pros:

• Minimum repayments fall when lenders lower interest rates
• You can usually pay off the mortgage quickly by not having any penalty for advance payouts
• Usually have a lower interest rates

Cons:

• Repayments rise when lenders increase their mortgage interest rates
• Wide variation in flexibility and cost to deploy features makes comparison quite difficult without the right tools and experience.
• For loan amounts of $250,000 or more, Standard Variable offers greater flexibility and if packaged may also have a lower interest rate
• Rapid rate hikes can catch you off guard and place you under financial pressure
• Flexibility features often carry limitations and fees which really add up (like ATM or EFTPoS fees on redraws)

Standard Variable Home Loan

Like a basic variable loan, interest moves up or down in accordance with movements in interest rates, set by your lender.

Standard variable loans may appear to have a higher interest rate however for loan amounts above $250,000, generous discounts are available for packaged banking. Discounts increase as total borrowings increase.

Standard variable loans are the rolls royce of mortgages and generally have an extensive range of loan features ranging from offset accounts through to portability, fee free redraw and beyond.

Pros:

• Repayments fall when lenders lower interest rates
• Can usually be split with fixed rate mortgages to help protect against rate hikes.
• Standard variable loans offer flexibility and many additional features
• Packaged banking can deliver a far more flexible mortgage at a lower effective cost than variable through interest rate discounts which increase as loan amounts increase
• Taking a banking package also includes other benefits such as fee free banking and discounts on other finance products such as financial planning, insurance and more.
• Incurs a higher interest rate for lower loan amounts and non-packaged loans
• Repayments rise when official interest rates rise
• Wide variation in flexibility and cost to deploy features makes comparison quite difficult without the right tools and experience.

Cons:

Fixed Rate Home Loan

The interest rate on a fixed rate loan does not change during the fixed rate period which also means your minimum  payment does not change either.

The ‘fixed rate period’ can vary, but you can usually “lock in” your repayments for between 1-5 years, with some lenders having 7, 10 and 15 year terms.

At the end of the ‘fixed rate’ period’, you can decide whether to re-fix you rate or allow it to roll over to a variable rate. Although the fixed rate period may only be a few years, the full loan term is longer and often set at 25 or 30 years.

Pros:

• You can be confident of repayment commitments during the fixed rate period.
• Provides peace of mind if you are concerned about rate rises
• Allows more precise budgeting
• Interest rates are usually higher than a Standard or Basic variable loan
• Most lenders only allow only limited additional payments
• Redraw is rarely available
• Often carries an unknown penalty for early payout of the loan
• Some lenders change to Basic Variable rate at the end of the fixed rate period, whilst others revert Standard Variable making comparison quite difficult without the right tools and experience.

Cons:

Split Rate Home Loan

A Split Rate home loan allows your total borrowings to be split part fixed, part variable There are usually quite small minimum loan amounts so you can decide how much to allocate to each based on your personal appetite for risk and interest savings.

Your Split Rate home loan combines the Pro’s and the Con’s of each loan type that you combine in the splits.

Capped Rate Home Loan

A Capped Rate Home Loan is a hybrid home loan with a variable interest rate up to an agreed interest rate. If the lender increases variable rates above the cap, your interest rate remains fixed until either rates fall below that rate or your capped rate period expires.

Pros:

• Minimum repayments fall when lenders lower interest rates
• Variable rates will often remain lower than fixed rates.

Cons:

• Limited choice of lenders.
• The variable rate charged is often higher than a basic variable rate loan.
• Variable component traditionally operates as a basic variable loan for most lenders.
• The capped rate is usually higher than the fixed rate for the equivalent fixed rate term.
• Has many of the fixed rate handicaps including rate cap fees and limitation to extra payments without penalty.

Introductory Rate Home Loan

The interest rate is usually low to attract borrowers. Also known as a honeymoon rate, this rate generally lasts only for or short term before it jumps up to a much higher variable rate (often Standard Variable). Rate types vary between lenders as discounted variable, fixed or capped.

Pros:

• Usually the lowest available rates
• When payments are made at the introductory rate, the principal can be reduced quickly
• Some lenders also include an offset account
• Payments usually increase sharply after the introductory period
• Most operate as basic variable loans only you wind up paying Standard Variable Rates
• Can compromise your access to packaged banking discounts
• Many come with early payout penalties.
• Wide variation in introductory terms, reversion rates, introductory rates and establishment makes comparison quite difficult without the right tools and experience
• Introductory rates may start out cheap, but quickly become expensive in most cases

Cons:

Lines of credit

A Line of Credit is like a personal overdraft or very large credit card. Lines of credits are commonly used to raise funds for investment or personal use by providing cash up to set limit which remains in place for the full term of the loan.

Payments are made on an Interest Only basis for the full life of the loan where the Line of Credit is an evergreen facility.

Pros:

• Extremely flexible allowing you maximum access to equity
• Offers  similar flexibility to credit cards and over drafts at much lower, home loan interest
• Simplifies and centralises all repayments and maximises interest offset opportunities

Cons:

• May attract a small interest rate loading (usually around 0.05%)
• You need to be disciplined to make sure you are actually paying your loan off or managing it to your own financial goals
• Can be very dangerous for inexperienced borrowers or borrowers without clear financial plans who regularly monitor their financial position

Non-conforming Home Loan

These loans are offered through non-bank lenders to people with poor credit ratings which may make it hard for them to obtain a home loan from a traditional lender.

Although non-conforming lenders may be willing to overlook prior credit problems, they usually require stronger evidence of your ability to repay the loan.

Pros:

• Lenders forgive poor credit history and rating
• Higher interest rate than banks and more traditional lenders
• Loans mostly operate like a limited basic variable loan
• Low deposits options are more expensive again
• Entry and exit costs are high

Cons:

Remember, this is only a brief overview of some options available in the Australian mortgage market place. Features of each loan, including the amount borrowers will lend you, per use fees and important functionality varies between  lenders.

Limited deals, special rates and limited offers come and go almost every day so when you are ready to find a home loan with someone you can trust, talk to a professional.

Request a free appointment – No charge, no obligation and with the comfort of a time and place that suits you. You can also call us on 1300 55 81 61.

These two loans have identical features, from different lenders. Which is cheaper for the average borrower?Answer: Loan B is several thousand dollars more expensive than Loan A.

The False Impression

All rates quoted on this site are based on a term of 30 years and a loan amount of $350,000, which is around average for most new borrowers. Mandatory Comparison Rates, are not.

Changes in loan amounts or loan terms dramatically influence the reliability of Comparison Rates. It is crucial you obtain a Comparison Rate for your individual situation. For the above example:

Although these two loans have the same comparison rate using a term and loan amount commonly quoted for Comparison Rates, when you increase the loan term and loan amount, Loan A becomes significantly cheaper. Although the percentage may seem like a small number it will add up to thousands of dollars difference.

Lenders and brokers are not required to provide you with a Comparison Rate based on your individual situation, however you should insist on one. If they refuse, then they simply don’t want you to be able to compare them apple to apple with lenders or brokers that will.

The Comparison Rate Formula.

Only ‘Ascertainable’ costs are included

This is a loophole which affects all borrowers, but none more significantly than borrowers who required Lenders Mortgage Insurance. Whether Lenders Mortgage Insurance is payable and how much it will cost varies wildly between lenders.

By how much? Who knows. It’s not unreasonable to see variations of $5,000+ on very ordinary loan amounts.

Does not consider features

You should always make sure the loans you are comparing have the features that you want and use. Once you have confirmed this, an individual Comparison Rate can then help you decide which is the most cost effective solution to meet your needs.

No good for Evergreen Interest Only

The Comparison Rate formula cannot be used for evergreen interest only facilities as the effective rate can only be calculated if the loan is repaid over time.

Fixed Rate Mortgage Traps

Comparison Rates can also be misleading for Fixed Rate loans as the majority of the the loan (for the purposes of calculating the Comparison Rate) is calculated at the variable rate. This means it is possible for one mortgage to have a lower fixed rate for the fixed rate period than another, yet have a higher Comparison Rate.

Look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves.
J. Paul Getty

Other factors

Higher interest rates nibble your lifestyle, every day.

Whenever you compare two interest rates, the higher rate means you must make higher repayments, which means you have less money to either pay your loan out faster or live the way you want.