Browse Forums Home Finance 1 May 21, 2010 3:49 pm Hi Guys, I'm just wondering if anyone has any information of the CBA's Wealth Package and/or their Interest Offset account. DH and I are looking in to both of these as an option when we move to our new place. My current understanding is that during construction the HL repayments are monthly and interest only on the full amount borrowed until settlement... from settlement this is where the HL will change... can anyone advise what steps we would need to take to arrange the above two options, do we advise our lender now (we're in the stages of arranging unconditional approval) or after settlement and does anyone have any feedback (good/bad) on these two options? Regards Sleven Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 2May 21, 2010 8:19 pm Why do you want to pay interest on money you haven't drawn on - you say "full amount borrowed" ? We're with the ANZ and ours is Interest-Only payable monthly on the amount drawn down (not the full total of the loan) until full draw-down (handover/settlement), plus we have 100% offset during this time. Built a Tribeca 44 with the Big M Sales Accept 15/06/09, Contract Signed 24/09/09, Site Start 23/11/09, Slab 11/12/09, Frame 12/01/10, Roof 20/01/10, Lock-up 30/03/10, Fixing 30/04/10, Handover 27/08/10. Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 3May 23, 2010 11:27 pm I may have misunderstood the lender when she was explaining what we are actually paying back during construction, so I may be wrong - we're in Melbourne and our lender is in Brisbane so it's all over the phone atm. Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 4May 24, 2010 1:02 pm Interest had better not be on the full amount! Or if it is, then you had better have the remaining money in your offset account. Otherwise you will be overpaying thousands in interest. We are with ANZ, and the deal we have is we pay interest only at SVR - 0.6% on the amount they have paid the builder (and the land developer) until the house is completed, whereupon it reverts to a standard loan. Each time the builder invoices us for a stage we send the invoice on to ANZ and they pay the builder and add it on to our loan. After base stage the FHOG appeared in our account, and I assume we will be using that for part payment of frame stage. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 5May 24, 2010 2:23 pm My husband works for the CBA-interest is only charged on the amount drawn down...clients can elect to make larger repayments than the minimum required (eg-pay the amount they will be regularly paying once the whole loan is drawn down) in order to reduce the interest payable over the term of the loan. Or, you can do what we are doing and only make the interest payments on what is drawn down. Sleven, make sure that you understand clearly which option you are taking. Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 6May 24, 2010 7:05 pm Deemaree My husband works for the CBA-interest is only charged on the amount drawn down...clients can elect to make larger repayments than the minimum required (eg-pay the amount they will be regularly paying once the whole loan is drawn down) in order to reduce the interest payable over the term of the loan. Or, you can do what we are doing and only make the interest payments on what is drawn down. Sleven, make sure that you understand clearly which option you are taking. Thanks Deemaree - I'm pretty sure what you have said the is the way we are going!!! (Although I will double check this!) Thanks heaps guys - so when do we advise the bank on which option we want to take i.e the wealth package and offset? Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 7May 27, 2010 10:27 am Interest will only be charged on the ongoing balance during the construction period. It won't be charged on the full loan amount until the loan is fully drawn. In regards to the CBA offset account it is known as the Mortgage Interest Saver Account (MISA). It isn't the best offset account out there since it isn't fully transactional such as those offered by ANZ, St.George and Westpac (among others). You need to have a minimum of $1,000 in the MISA before it offsets. Also you can only access the account using CBA ATM's, internet banking and over the counter transactions and the minimum withdrawal is $500. You can't set up direct debits to come out of it and I don't believe you can directly credit your salary to it. You need to credit your salary to a Streamline account and then transfer funds over to the MISA using internet banking. If you require a fully transactional offset account then there are much better options out there. If this is not a concern then CBA isn't a bad option. Patrick O'Brien Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 8May 27, 2010 4:38 pm mwa7876 Interest will only be charged on the ongoing balance during the construction period. It won't be charged on the full loan amount until the loan is fully drawn. In regards to the CBA offset account it is known as the Mortgage Interest Saver Account (MISA). It isn't the best offset account out there since it isn't fully transactional such as those offered by ANZ, St.George and Westpac (among others). You need to have a minimum of $1,000 in the MISA before it offsets. Also you can only access the account using CBA ATM's, internet banking and over the counter transactions and the minimum withdrawal is $500. You can't set up direct debits to come out of it and I don't believe you can directly credit your salary to it. You need to credit your salary to a Streamline account and then transfer funds over to the MISA using internet banking. If you require a fully transactional offset account then there are much better options out there. If this is not a concern then CBA isn't a bad option. Great - thanks heaps for the info. Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 9May 29, 2010 7:10 pm I am on the CBA Wealth Package and have the Interest Offset Option currently setup on our land loan. We are just in the stages of applying / increasing that load to accomadate the house loan aswell. I was asked by the CBA the other day which option of Home Loan Insurance i would like to take up. eg 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and have a meeting with them (CBA) next thursday about it. Silly me did not even asked if i HAVE TO take out Home Loan insurance for the House And Land Loan. Does anybody know if it is a must to get the finance approved. We are applying for the Full House and Land loan with 25% deposit in cash ... Anyone know? We're building The Albany 330E with Casa Design & Construction via National Builders Group See how we are going here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32694 Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 10May 29, 2010 11:25 pm TheAlbany I am on the CBA Wealth Package and have the Interest Offset Option currently setup on our land loan. We are just in the stages of applying / increasing that load to accomadate the house loan aswell. I was asked by the CBA the other day which option of Home Loan Insurance i would like to take up. eg 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and have a meeting with them (CBA) next thursday about it. Silly me did not even asked if i HAVE TO take out Home Loan insurance for the House And Land Loan. Does anybody know if it is a must to get the finance approved. We are applying for the Full House and Land loan with 25% deposit in cash ... Anyone know? I'm sorry I can't help you out there with a straight answer - nothing like that was ever mentioned to us in relation to us "having" to have it - it has been offered to both my husband and I on numerous occasions though, all of which we have denied. Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 11May 30, 2010 12:28 am If you have borrowings of more than 80% (I think that's the figuire..) of your house valuation you have to have insurance Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 12May 30, 2010 12:28 am I'm assuming you mean Mortgage INsurance? Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 13May 30, 2010 1:25 am Deemaree I'm assuming you mean Mortgage INsurance? By "Mortgage Insurance" you mean the LMI, Lenders Mortgage insurance ??? If so no ... I am only borrowing 75%, i have 25% deposit, and therfore dont need to pay or have the LMI. What i mean is the bank rang me and asked which type of Home Loan Insurance i would like to have ... i think they had a play on workds when they asked me. They should of really said "would you like to take out Home Loan Insurance"? because i dont think i HAVE to have it. I accepted an appointment for this Thursday to discuss it, but i dont think i have to have it. they said it would cover my repayments if ever i was not able to pay (ie, broken leg, death, loss of job. ect ect ect) ????????? We're building The Albany 330E with Casa Design & Construction via National Builders Group See how we are going here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32694 Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 14May 30, 2010 7:25 am We have Wealth Package set up and also have a MISA with CBA. If your total borrowings/investments are going to meet the threshold once loan drawn in full, I would be advsing at the beginning that you want Wealth Package. A good lender would be selling the benefits of this package to you. This way there are no establishment fees for your loans just the yearly charge. If you don't set it up at the beginning, you could well pay loan establishment fees to set up your loan and then if you want to sign up with Welath Package later (which is an option) you will then pay the annual fee too. Also, this way, you'll recieve any other benefits straight away to, for example, no annual fee on a gold credit card. Our MISA works for us. I suppose it depends on how you want to use it. As an earlier poster mentioned, if you want this to act as a transaction acct, it won't work for you. We have some extra funds that are there for a purpose down the track so rather than earning a pathetic amt of interest in a savings acct it's saving us a bit on our home loan. Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 15May 30, 2010 9:34 am The Albany, this sounds like Mortgage Protection Insurance - our credit union offerrred it to us and we declined - we did not have to take it out (or could take it out with another insurer if we chose), the staff said they had to offer it to everyone and then make a note that you had been given the option and had declined. Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 16May 30, 2010 11:41 am Helyn The Albany, this sounds like Mortgage Protection Insurance - our credit union offerrred it to us and we declined - we did not have to take it out (or could take it out with another insurer if we chose), the staff said they had to offer it to everyone and then make a note that you had been given the option and had declined. That's right Helyn-because of the sales driven mentatlity of the banks these days, the staff have certain cross selling requirements/targets to meet in order to be eligible for bonus...unlike the directors who can shaft staff and clients and still get paid miliions.... . Sorry...off soapbox now! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 18May 30, 2010 3:43 pm chook07 Deemaree, your completely right....everyone is like macca's now...would you like fries with that?? DH is in the industry and has been for over 20 years..the change of attitude towards staff from management is reflected in the banks' attitudes towards clients..... Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 19May 30, 2010 5:33 pm chook07 We have Wealth Package set up and also have a MISA with CBA. If your total borrowings/investments are going to meet the threshold once loan drawn in full, I would be advsing at the beginning that you want Wealth Package. A good lender would be selling the benefits of this package to you. This way there are no establishment fees for your loans just the yearly charge. If you don't set it up at the beginning, you could well pay loan establishment fees to set up your loan and then if you want to sign up with Welath Package later (which is an option) you will then pay the annual fee too. Also, this way, you'll recieve any other benefits straight away to, for example, no annual fee on a gold credit card. Our MISA works for us. I suppose it depends on how you want to use it. As an earlier poster mentioned, if you want this to act as a transaction acct, it won't work for you. We have some extra funds that are there for a purpose down the track so rather than earning a pathetic amt of interest in a savings acct it's saving us a bit on our home loan. Awesome - thanks heaps Chook07 - your use of the MISA is exactly what we want to use it for... this account will be called my "Baby Fund" I want to stash money away to be my "income" when I'm off with our first child (which won't be for at least 5 years yet!) - we looked at options such as managed funds and term deposits, but as you mentioned, the piddly little interest you would earn on savings accounts kept us looking around for something more viable so the MISA for us seemed to be the better option in our opinion. I think we will definitely be speaking to our lender in regards to setting up the Wealth Package from day dot... seems to make sense (and cents!). Appreciate your help muchly!!! Regards Sleven Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: CBA's Wealth Package and Interest Offset option! 20May 30, 2010 6:56 pm sleven-chook07 is right on the money about being better off to set the Wealth Package up right at the start to avoid the Loan Estab Fees (confirmed w DH), but by all means discuss all options with your lender as they have all your details-Good luck with it all! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Yes, I had already tried searching those. In the end I am fabricating my own. 4 4175 Newbie question for flooring options. We are thinking of changing the flooring for bedrooms and passage area. Last time we looked at flooring options was almost 8years… 0 3519 Hi, I'd like some advice on the best option please on the estimate options we've been provided from our builder. This is for the… 0 4066 |