Have you checked your home loan lately?

When was the last time you had a look at your home loan and actually asked yourself 'what do I really need from my home loan?'

What you need to consider...

1. Find out everything about your current home loan, such as interest rate, fees and home loan features (redraw facilities, offset account, line of credit). Do a comparison between your current and potential new home loan. Alternatively, speak to a mortgage broker - they will do the research for you and compare your current home loan and provide you with alternatives.

2. A lot may have changed since you took out your home loan. Decide which home loan features you actually require and which new features might suit you better. A mortgage broker can help you with this process.

3. Contact your current mortgage lender to find out what the exit costs for your home loan are.

You can either do your own calculations or call an experienced mortgage broker to talk you through this. Work out how long it will take for you to start receiving a benefit. Ie. when do the savings of the new interest rate outweigh the exit costs of your original mortgage loan.

4. Think about reducing the term or pay back period of your refinanced home loan, which will most likely increase the monthly repayments, but could mean you'll pay less interest and pay your home loan off sooner.

5. Speak to one of our mortgage brokers about debt consolidation. If you have a number of personal loans, credit card debts and other loans, consolidating them into your refinanced home loan could be a good solution for you. it's important to remember that although you'll most likely be paying a lower interest rate on your other debt - you are tacking it on to a longer pay-back period.

Our tip is to be vigilant and make additional repayments to cover the value of the extra debt added to your mortgage loan, potentially saving you thousands of dollars.

6. Don't send in home loan applications to multiple mortgage lenders in the hope that one will say yes. This can cause havoc by reducing your creditworthiness if home loan lenders see how many loans you have applied for.

For more information about refinancing your home loan or about debt consolidation, speak to one of the mortgage brokers at Intellichoice today on 1300 55 10 45.