How to pay off your home loan faster

An offset account is a bank account that’s linked to your home loan. You can use it like any normal transaction account, but the balance in it ‘offsets’ the amount you owe on your home loan. The interest you pay on your home loan is calculated on this reduced amount. The more you have in your offset account each day, the more interest you could save.

• You can link up to nine of them to a range of our home loans, which can help you manage your money
  
• You get a Debit Mastercard^® with each offset account, so you can easily and regularly access your money.

• While no monthly offset fees apply if you have an eligible Complete Home Loan Package, they may apply to each offset account with our other home loans – be sure to check your home loan T&Cs.

See some tips to help you make the most of an offset account.

The more you pay off, the less interest we’ll charge on your home loan. Even if you make a small extra repayment to your loan every week, the savings can be huge. But don’t just take our word for it – crunch the numbers yourself on our extra repayments calculator to see how much money and time you could save by paying more off your home loan.

What’s more, with a Bankwest home loan, you can access your extra repayments if you need money down the track – also known as redraw.

• It could suit you better than using an offset account if you want to save on monthly offset fees that may apply depending on your home loan (for example, if you don't have an eligible Complete Home Loan Package)
  
• You can make unlimited extra repayments with our variable rate home loans
  
• With our variable rate loans, you can redraw through the Bankwest App or online banking and there’s no minimum redraw amount (but if you have a loan that requires two or more people to authorise changes or payments, a minimum redraw amount applies and you won’t be able to redraw through the app or online banking).

• Our fixed rate loans let you make extra repayments up to a set amount each year
• An offset account might suit you better if you’d prefer to access your money more regularly
  
• With our fixed rate loans, a minimum redraw amount applies and you won’t be able to redraw through the Bankwest App or online banking
  
• Redrawing your extra repayments means that that money will no longer be reducing the interest on your home loan.
  

Things may have changed since you first opened your home loan, so reviewing it could mean you get a better interest rate, or more flexible features to help you save money long term. Our Home Lending Specialists might be able to help you out – find out more.

If you’re worried about fluctuating interest rates, you could choose to fix a portion of your home loan for an agreed term (of one to five years) while keeping the rest variable for extra flexibility. One great benefit of a fixed rate loan is that your repayments won’t change for the entirety of the fixed term, which could help you to budget.

Our Complete Fixed and Complete Variable Home Loan Packages let you split or switch between fixed and variable any time with no transfer fee. Keep in mind that other fees and charges, such as break fees on a fixed rate loan, may apply.

Our Home Lending Specialists can help you work out if splitting your loan is the right option for you.