A ‘Basic’ home loan does exactly what it says on the box – provides you a loan to buy a home, with set repayment terms and little in the way of extra features. Basic home loans are usually variable rate loans, without the ability to use an offset account, redraw your extra repayments, utilise a line of credit or access discounts on associated services by paying other fees.
They are consistently among the most popular types of loans, for two reasons. The low-feature status generally goes hand in hand with lower interest rates. Additionally, the average borrower who wants a loan product which is simple and easy to understand can be confident about their total costs with a basic home loan.
Basic home loans are not complex products – that is one of their great advantages! With RatesOnline’s easy search facility and straightforward comparison table, searching for all the available basic home loans and discovering the best one for you becomes easy.
You can easily see which loans have the features you need and the lowest rate. If you need clarification or help in deciding among home loans, a RatesOnline expert broker is available to confidentially help you weigh your options and make a decision.
What Are the Benefits of a Basic Home Loan?
If you have ever said, “But why would I need all of that stuff?”, a basic home loan may be the right one for you. It is easy to get lost in the maze of Product Disclosure Statements, published interest rates and fees (and movements in these over time), clauses and conditions that come along with more fully featured home loans. Basic home loans give you confidence, a lower interest
Yet it is important that you make sure features that you will need and use can be accessed through the loan. Some basic home loans can be restrictive, and you should make sure that you have the ability to utilise your home loan differently if your financial circumstances change.
Once you’ve made sure that a Basic home loan has the tools that you’ll need, you’ll enjoy benefits such as:
- Confident understanding: Unlike many financial products, basic home loans are very simple contracts. If you aren’t legally or financially minded, or you don’t have the time to keep yourself updated with the most current interest rates, fees and charges, the stripped-back version of a variable rate loan will leave you valuable brain-space.
- Can be cheaper: Because they have fewer associated administration costs, basic home loans are almost always cheaper than the standard variable rate loan.
- Interest rate decreases are passed on: Because basic home loans have a variable interest rate, any rate cuts are generally passed on to you. Variable rate loans have often proven cheaper than fixed rate loans in the long term.