Just a quick tip this week, in the lead-up to Christmas.
The media gave Westpac a good hammering over their interest rate rise a couple of weeks ago; 0.45 points higher instead of the 0.25 points dictated by the RBA. Whilst many of the other lenders also lifted rates by higher than the minimum, none of the other majors were quite as ambitious.
Now, the good news!
We’ve found that since then, Westpac have been a little more open to negotiation than they might usually be. So, it may be worth your while to give them a call (132 558, I think) if you are an existing customer. Almost every investor that we’ve spoken to in the last two weeks with a loan at Westpac has been able to get at least 0.2 points knocked off their variable rate – on top of any existing discounts. Some are now as much as 1.15% under the standard variable rate. Gotta love that!
And hey, it’s probably worth asking every bank that you’ve got loans with, just in case. What’ve you got to lose?