Friday, January 11, 2013

Best Mortgage Calculator

When looking for the best mortgage calculators such as RateCity’s calculator makes it easy to compare home loans. Simply punch in the amount you wish to borrow, and the calculator will provide a monthly repayment figure from a number of different home loan lenders.

Apart from trying to get a low interest home loan, by using the best mortgage calculator in the market, there are other factors worth considering when looking for a home loan.

Low fees

If it’s a first mortgage, be aware that some lenders will charge an application fee – although not always. An establishment fee is meant to cover the costs of creating your account and producing the documents such as the ‘Certificate of Title’, required to set up your home loan.

An establishment fee might also cover the cost of a representative from your lender attending the settlement, and for the lodgement of any documents with the Land Title Office.

Moreover, the amount you pay to establish a mortgage differs between lenders and even home loans. Some may charge hundreds of dollars or more, while others will waive the fee charging no establishment fees at all.
So it's worth taking this into consideration when calculating the costs of setting up a home loan or switching to another lender.

Switching lenders

Likewise if you decide to switch between a fixed rate mortgage and a variable rate mortgage, you may need to pay a break cost. That said, since the middle of 2011, exit fees no longer apply if you refinanced or took out a variable rate mortgage after July 1.

Split the difference

If you’re not happy with either a fixed rate mortgage or a variable rate mortgage, you might want to consider a split home loan.

These are home loans that are part fixed and part variable, in almost any proportion you prefer. With a split rate home loan, it doesn’t really matter what the lenders and the Reserve Bank of Australia settle on with interest rates, you win some and lose some either way.

Best Mortgage Calculator Repayments

Owning a home is often described as the ‘Great Australian Dream’, so don’t let the mortgage repayments become your ‘worst financial nightmare’.

Fortunately, with the best mortgage calculator, repayments set by many of Australia’s lenders can be revealed.

The calculator in question is RateCity’s home loan calculator, which also reveals how long it will take to repay a variable rate mortgage or a fixed rate mortgage, the mortgage rates and so on.

Besides with the best mortgage calculator, repayments can be altered by switching between a selection of repayment frequencies – in some cases, increasing repayments from monthly to fortnightly repayments is often the best approach for shaving interest and time from a home loan. But this will entirely depend on your lender.

More repayments

If your home loan lender allows it – and most do – choose fortnightly rather than monthly repayments. By increasing the repayment frequency, you can significantly slash the interest liability attached to a 25-year home loan, and shave years off its term.

If you’re wondering how this works – it’s pretty simple. Paying fortnightly instalments is like making 13 months worth of repayments annually.  The additional month could make a big difference over the term of the home loan, while you probably won’t find it any more financially onerous than making monthly repayments. Again, this will depend on how your lender calculates interest, so it's certainly worth asking.

Lump sum payments

Another way to make a serious dent in your home loan is to pay lump sums such as tax return payments, a small inheritance, a lottery win, or a salary bonus directly into the home loan. This works on the basis that the lump sum immediately reduces the home loan amount that the interest is calculated against.

The beauty of a lump sum payment is that you won’t miss what you never had, while this strategy will provide you with an excellent tax-free return that no other investment strategy can compete with. Not all home loans allow borrowers to make lump sum payments, so check this with your lender or compare home loan features online at RateCity.

If you’re worried a lump sum payment will tie up your money, don’t forget most home loans have redraw facilities, which provide access to your funds should the need arise.


Using RateCity’s best mortgage calculator, repayments can be tweaked until you find the best match for your circumstances – it's literally a key stroke away.

The Best Mortgage Calculator Will Save Money

When looking for a mortgage calculator, the best mortgage calculator in my opinion would be the one that will save you the most money in the end.

This might not be the one with the lowest monthly payment. If you are looking for a calculator with whom you will get the lowest monthly payment, you should be willing to pay a lot more for your property.



There is a lot of ways to be able to reduce your monthly premiums. Some of them most people will go for and others they won't. Normally they take the wrong options and this will cost them a lot more than they think. Some of the options are as follow:
  • You can increase your mortgage term - not a good idea.
  • You can pay the absolute minimum each month - also very bad idea.
  • You can shop around before getting the mortgage and get it at a lower interest rate - good idea.
  • You can put down a deposit when starting with the mortgage - excellent.
  • Pay in your extra money and bonuses into the mortgage - great plan.
  • Borrow money from family at a lower rate and rather pay them, then borrow less from the banks -great plan.
  • Rent out part of your property and use that income to pay less out of your pocket - excellent plan.
Normally most people will only go for the first two or three options. They will stretch out the mortgage term as far as possible and pay as little as possible each month. The other options might look wrong or people don't ever think about those options. Though the other options are actually able to help you very much.

The truth can be easily seen when you have a proper mortgage calculator that shows you what is really happening. With this type of calculator some of the facts aren't disguised for you to miss them. You can be able to calculate exactly what effect each of the different techniques will be having.

According to me a mortgage calculator that shows you exactly what is happening and helps you to save money in the long run would be the best one to have.

Don't be fooled into thinking that if you are able to pay less each month that you are really always saving. A lot of times it is the exact opposite. Get this mortgage calculator that can show and educate you about what is happening.