Thursday, September 29, 2011

Refinanced with Ubank after 4 months waiting

There have been recent reports about how the big banks have been desperately chasing the mortgage dollar more than ever before. With UBank taking out a global award for its innovative UHomeLoan product, there is little wonder that other banks are starting to react after years of intransigence.

 I haven't bought a place but after what you could say a "restructure", I am married now and the two of us are paying off a mortgage. We were with one of the Big Four banks when I suggested that we refinance with Ubank at the rate of 6.59%. It was late in May that the application was submitted and after four months, the account is up and running.

Money that I've transferred into the new account has made it into the account and we're off and running! I thought it would be interesting to share what its been like for those that may be on the investigative stage of refinancing. I have not been very happy with the time taken for Ubank to process the refinancing as time = money especially when we are working with a mortgage. I calculated that the delay was worth about $1000 in unnecessary interest paid on the property.

Having said that, the rate is low and very competitive which is probably what accounted for some of the delay at least. Having received our welcome pack from Ubank, with a tea towel thrown in, we hope that the journey from here is more smooth. We like the fact that we can top up on the loan anytime we like, and redraw in lots of $1000 any time that we are ahead on schedule. There seems to be a little delay on funds transfers with each amount taking around 2 days to hit the bank. If you transfer on a Friday, you probably won't see it in the Ubank account until Tuesday as weekends are not working days. Not sure of the interest ramifications of this.

 Ubank's product is much less complicated than other providers and my hope that their Uhomeloan will mature so that we can see more than just a boring transaction history but more like the rest of Ubank's products where SMS alerts, graphs etc can make even checking your home loan an enjoyable experience.

What is your experience with home loans? How would you make things more enjoyable and are you considering refinancing?

Our other post on Uhomeloan.

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