Mortgage holders are taking a proactive, ‘no surprises’ approach to their finances, with new data from the Commonwealth Bank showing a spike in the number of Aussies utilising its online home loan repayment calculator each month immediately following the Reserve Bank’s cash rate decision.
According to the data, on Tuesday, 3 May – which marked the first time this year the Reserve Bank increased the official cash rate – visits to Commonwealth Bank’s online home loan repayment calculator tool increased by 106 per cent in comparison to the day prior.
June data follows a similar pattern with visits to the bank’s home loan repayment calculator tool surging 96 per cent on the Tuesday of the RBA Board meeting in comparison to the day prior.
Interestingly, data from Commonwealth Bank also found there was a 46 per cent spike in the number of customers utilising the home loan change repayment tool to actively increase their home loan repayments in the week immediately following the May Reserve Bank Board meeting in comparison to the week prior. In June, there was a 41 per cent spike in the number of home loan customers actively increasing their home loan repayments.
Commonwealth Bank’s Executive General Manager ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Buying, Dr Michael Baumann, said it was clear from the data Aussies are taking a proactive approach to their finances and trying to ascertain what any cash rate decisions made by the Reserve Bank could mean for them and their ongoing home loan repayments.
“Aussies are acutely aware that any increases to the cash rate may result in higher home loan rates. To understand what impact these rising rates may have on their finances, they are utilising the different tools available to get a sense of how much their monthly mortgage repayments may increase,” he said.
“Should customers wish to make any proactive changes to their home loan repayments, they can do so through our home loan change repayment tool available via NetBank and the CommBank app. This tool allows customers to manage their repayments online, including aligning them to when and how often they are paid, as well as increasing or decreasing their repayments as needed.
“In May and June, we saw a spike in customers using the tool to take action and proactively increase their home loan repayments over and above their minimum monthly required repayments. They chose to increase their repayments following the Reserve Bank Board meeting so as to factor any higher repayments into their household budgets immediately.”
In addition to leveraging CommBank’s array of different tools to help manage changing personal and household budgets, Dr Baumann said customers could also take advantage of the bank’s exclusive offers that are available through its suite of innovative partners.
“With the rising cost of living, looking for deals on everyday services like utilities is a great way for homeowners to save money and reduce expenses. Our customers can access exclusive offers through our partners, like More which offers great savings on unavoidable and ongoing costs like internet,” he said.
