thlo
joeygbh
thlo
So to summarise; take with one hand and if customers pay a large annual fee, they can have some of the rate increase back? Nice.
At least you get a choice of nominal annual one off fee and an interest rate discount on a very large sum vs slightly lower annual fee and no interest rate discount whatsoever. Depending on how big your loan is, it still is better than no discount.
When we consult with our home loan customers, we identify lenders that do not charge any fees (annual or monthly) and still offer an interest rate that is lower than many discounted rates (professional pack) that require large fees.
However, some customers still choose a loan that has the fees. That is their choice after seeing the alternative solutions.
When I was searching I noticed that many of the lenders who provided much lower standard rates did so in introductory offers, or did not provide things like offset accounts - which are definitely worth it, especially if you're interested in turning your property into an investment. Also, the included gold card is pretty handy as I'm one of those "everything on credit and pay it off at the end of the month" people, so the gold card gives me the extra warranty and stuff. The annual fee is annoying if you look at it as an additional fee to your existing finance but if you include it in the cost of your total finance solution including interest and other banking services, it's not too bad.
I'll be making a change to my loan structure later this year and hopefully the minor competition between the banks holds out so I have a bit of leverage to get a better discount.