9 October 2000
HOME-LOAN borrowers should be doing some serious soul-searching to determine whether the rising interest rates of the past year means they still have the best mortgage to suit their particular financial needs, says the online mortgage broking firm E-Loan.
A spokesperson says: ``Unlike the past, borrowers can easily calculate for themselves what the impact of rate rises will be and can also compare how their current mortgage stacks up against the myriad of variable, fixed and split-rate home loans now available.
``E-Loan provides borrowers with a comprehensive range of online calculators and tools, free of charge, to help remove the complexity and confusion in choosing and applying for a loan. This ensures that borrowers have the best loan to suit their individual needs."
Key E-Loan online features include:
Improving the process for borrowers applying for loans. More than 200 home loans from leading lenders are impartially sorted and analysed according to the borrowers' criteria, then ranked in terms of overall cost.
Borrowers can compare details and likely costs of different types of loans, such as fixed interest and variable interest loans, and not just loans of the same type, allowing them to run automated ``apples- with-apples" comparisons and with lenders' terms presented clearly.
E-Match (E-Loan's search engine) has been independently audited to ensure its impartiality by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
E-Loan can help borrowers work out where they stand by calculating how the rate increase will affect their individual repayment schedule and how it will impact on their overall financial planning.
E-Loan was designed to empower the consumer in a process that, until now, many people have found intimidating, frustrating and time consuming. The home-loan market is competitive with many products and lots of variables.
E-Loan consultants help with impartial comparisons of the best lenders and product alternatives, with applications for pre-approvals and completion of the application process through to settlement.
E-Loan costs the borrower nothing. The customer pays the lender the same fee they would normally pay if they went direct to that lender.