UBank is offering eligible new UHomeLoan refinance applications a special Upfront Discount Offer of 0.25%p.a. off the Standard Variable Rate. This special offer is for a limited time.
To qualify for this special Upfront Discount Offer, the UHomeLoan refinance application must be unconditionally approved within six (6) weeks from the date of the online application.
Referrer and referee each receive $10 after referee makes 5 settled card purchases within 30 days.
Ubank's home loan rate is good, not to mention NAB is the first big 4 to abolish Bank Fees.
Negged by lovers of big banks, sigh…
when you say a legitimate bank is a scam, ofcourse people dont like :)
Scam? lol, I know I said spam, but….
I have been looking at UBank recently and this is the first time i've seen them give a 0.25% discount off their already reasonable rates. So a + for me there.
A questions for the REP: The 6 week approval period is mostly out of a borrowers hands; who to say that the settlement isn't 'accidentally' dragged out past 6 weeks, out of no fault of the applicant?
Hi kc88,
During this offer period we will have all hands on deck to ensure that their are no approval delays from UBank's end. Applicants will need to first be available for a suitability call with us, ensure they upload all of their necessary documents to our online tracker and then set up a preferred time for a property valuation.
agree with kc88. why putting time limit this is not fair as we dont have control of your side. last dec i applied with bonus $500 giftcard, every time i ask if i eligible/success to get $500 they keep saying "its strict rules to get, we cant tell you yet" even after my loan settled with them~!
example: what happen if customer loads everything on time but half of your staffs not coming to work, or spike in new applications, therefore delay from your side. we wont know this, and you free to walk away from obligation to give the promo.
note: im around 7 years ubank customer, and got invited to "ubank u can" ads trial by your marketing team years ago
damn it, why do you require 80% LVR, biggest issue…
Anything above 80% requires mortgage insurance (adds interest) and is a bigger risk for the bank. UBank also does not do construction loans (I went with Commbank for my home loan instead of Ubank for this reason).
UBank is offering the lowest rates because they're taking on the lowest risk.
a little bit confusing…
does the 0.25% upfront discount apply for three years and then the 0.10% loyal discount replaces it?
or does the 0.25% upfront discount apply for life of the loan and then 0.10% loyal discount on top of the first discount after the three years (total discount 0.35%)?
Hi m82,
The 0.25%p.a. upfront loyalty discount applies for the life of your variable loan. If you were to vary your UHomeLoan in any way (switch to a fixed rate loan for example), it will no longer qualify for the upfront loyalty discount but be eligible for the standard loyalty discount of 0.10%p.a. after 3 years.
thank you, so to confirm 0.25% for life of loan?
e.g. does not stack to 0.35% when no changes made (after three years)
That's correct m82, there will be no additional discount after 3 years if you're eligible for the upfront discount.
deleted.
Thanks Emma! :)
Worst application process ever ….
I had a relatively good experience with Ubank but I think it depends entirely dependant on how complex your situation is. I was refinancing as the sole owner and well within the 80% LVR.
I'm very sorry to hear that, we've been working through a number of improvements to ensure that the application process is simple and quick. If you'd to talk further about your experience, please feel free to send me a private message.
There's some talk about UBank home loans for quite a while, one issue is if you were to use the home loan for tax purposes (http://homeinperth.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/catch-with-ubanks…) and yeah some have complained about what sometimes takes quite a while for the home loan to be approved but I don't think they do it on purpose
True, essentially of this loan is for an investment property, you can forget about the redraw feature (unless used to purchase another investment property) otherwise interest on the amount withdrawn is not deductible.
However I think at a rate this low (ie. 5.12%), a property investor could consider an interest-only loan with Ubank and use the ME Bank online savings account (offering 5.10% for next 12 months) as an offset account (tax wise). Of course a new plan will need to be devised next year when the ME Bank bonus rate expires but this is worth considering for the savvy investor. Just a thought for open discussion, not an advice.
Just for clarity, I believe that this situation on the 'tax deducatability of interest' applies to all homeloans without an offset account, not just UBank. It's set by the ATO, not the lender. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
yeah you are right, I guess that's why some people still go with a big 4 for investment properties because they offer offset accounts. But for the non-investor, this is better than an offset account and no fees.
We just got approved with ubank with their previous deal ($500 gift card but only 0.10% discount) and I must say the application process is quite troublesome compared with the other banks I have dealt with. But hey, it's a great rate with the discount, ideal for people who only want low rate and not much extra features with their loan.
have you get confirmation of the giftcard?
Nope, are we supposed to get one before settlement? It's approved and we just received the contract pack, but need to send it back to them and wait for settlement. Assuming the 6 weeks timeline is 6 weeks til full approval (rather than settlement) we should be right?
we get it later but no confirmation whatsoever even after settlement. "you get it if you get it" thats basically what they told me.
Can one refinance from NAB?
why not?
I currently have an application in progress, which is at valuation stage. Do I miss out on this offer, as I have applied for it earlier? If so, that's pretty annoying…
This process has taken me over 3 months and I'm still waiting on it being finalised, last 5% of the process has taken over a month and counting…
Once set up, this loan is decent…definitely worth taking the time (took me about 4 hours in all) for the huge savings you make.
Guys
I am currently with Suncorp. They have the best off-set facility where all of my accounts are offset accounts. This saves a lot of trouble from transferring funds between accounts. Rate of 5.46% is one of the most competitive and a package fee of $300.
Ubank offers by far the best rate in the market but there are no offset accounts. Is it a big deal given they have redraw? I have never used redraw. How is this going to affect everyday life?
I dump everything into the redraw (salary, any extra cash etc) to offset the interest, then transfer small amounts every few weeks to the linked transaction account to allow for atm withdrawals.
So long as you use a bit of forward thinking about your cash needs, it works really well.
i do the same except use the credit card thought the month then at the end of the month just pay the CC back… no interest on teh CC and no annual fee.
Haha same…I live off the credit card, and pay it back in full each month.
Maximum funds in the loan at all times ;)
I go one step further by applying for promotional 0% balance transfer (and purchases if possible) credit card (minimum 6 months). When the promotional rate expires, I apply for another card and roll-over the balance for another interest free period. The challenge is usually to get a new credit card that has credit card limit that is higher than the current outstanding amount plus an estimate of my spend for the forward period.
Dude, that's smart but too much trouble..
Yeah I see where you are coming from but worth doing the maths to see if it's too much hassle.
True Ozbargainer! Great idea. So how do you get say $10K on your credit card without incurring interest charges before you can transfer the balance to a new card? Also, wouldn't you you try and pay off the $10K interest free in 6 months and then take on another $10K interest free, for example?
That would affect you credit rating if you have too many enquiries on credit report
Well the aim is to borrow as much as possible at the lowest possible interest rate and use this to pay off other loans with high interest rate (eg. home loan).
This method will not work overnight. If you don't already have an outstanding credit balance (most of us will have current balance within the 55 or 44 day interest free period), you will need to start from $0 balance on your new 0% promotional credit card. After the end of the promotional period, say 6 months, you transfer the accumulated outstanding balance to another 0% promotional credit card.
Best is to apply for those with 0% promotional rate for both balance transfer and purchases (so that you can build up your interest-free outstanding balance), otherwise the 0% on balance transfer only card (more common these days) is 2nd best. Not so good is the 0% on purchases only card (ie. no promotion on balance transfer) because you basically start from $0 balance and build up your benefit over time through normal daily spend.
Normally the credit cards would have annual fee especially the ones with promotional rates. Do they worth it?
fee $300 for $300,000 loan, this translate to 0.1% you need to add that so basically you are not paying 5.46 but 5.46+0.1.. see the trick?
redraw vs off-set
why not you google first? :) or even read above comments from mrgq
Thanks for your comments.
The SVR is 6.49% so you got a discount of 1.03%. That's brilliant! Can you tell us the loan value and the LVR? The discount is usually driven by these two.
It's just a special promotion they ran at the time. My loan is less than $400K.
But isn't it a once off 0.1%, not ongoing? I don't think it changes the ROI equation significantly for this deal.
Edit: supposed to be in reply to: fee $300 for $300,000 loan, this translate to 0.1% you need to add that so basically you are not paying 5.46 but 5.46+0.1.. see the trick?
True - that's so called comparison rate.
I'm in the middle of an application for a UBank home loan (standard variable rate) but when I called up to ask about the 0.25% discount, I was unable to get it for my current application. I can only get 0.1% off the rate :(. Considering how much mortgages are, that extra 0.15% makes a big difference. It seems unfair considering the loan has not been settled yet that I am not entitled to the discount.
Are you able to help Emma?
you can try stop your current apps, and then reapply (same name, or better with your spouse name). but make sure you can im not responsible for anything :)
I think it did say for new applicants only.
It would be nice if the 0.25% discount also apply to existing customers who are getting less than that.
shop around. that's how we, traditionally slack customers, can keep the banks up against each other… LOL
Guys, given yesterday's annoucement by RBA, I am planning to fix $150K. Is this a good move? Any thoughts?
Are you happy with the inflexibility of fixed rate loans? Not only is the rate fixed but the repayment amount is fixed too. You can't pay more to pay off quicker.
Thanks for your reply. I will have a portion of my loan unfixed but I am not going to fix my loan now. Simply because the 3 yr rate Ubank offers is not that atractive given all major banks have dropped their fixed rates.
PinzVidz on 25/01/2013 - 10:53 Comment score below threshold.