Increasing your home loan

It’s when you increase the limit on your loan. If you have an existing Bankwest home loan, you can check it in the Bankwest App. After you’ve logged in, just go to your home loan account and tap ‘Manage’ in the menu.

Increasing your home loan could save you interest in the short term compared to a personal loan or credit card, because the interest rate will almost always be lower. However, you’ll need to take into account the life of the loan – like with any loan, the longer the loan term, the more interest you’ll pay. Remember, to increase your loan, you'll still need to go through the application process like when you first applied for it (we need to make sure you can afford the new loan terms).

With a home loan increase, you could either combine your new loan with your existing home loan repayments or keep it separate.

If you’re renovating, upgrading, or purchasing an investment property, it might be better to combine it with your existing loan. Keep in mind that your repayments will increase, so it’s important to make sure you’re comfortable with the new repayments (just so it doesn’t take you by surprise).

If you’re getting the home loan to purchase a vehicle or consolidate debt, you might want to keep the loans separate and split your repayments. It means you can track repayments and set a shorter loan term – allowing you to pay it off sooner.

Get a sense for which option might work better for you and calculate your repayments.