Time to fix at Just 4.96%
Monday, 18/02/2013
BOQ has come out fighting with today’s announcement of a market-leading two-year fixed rate of 4.96%.
This places BOQ at the top of the leader board with Canstar confirming BOQ’s Home Loan Privileges Package has the lowest two-year year fixed rate of any bank.
Chief Operating Officer Jon Sutton said that while some of the other banks were encouraging customers to negotiate a better rate, BOQ wanted to offer a better rate, straight up.
“We’d prefer to be transparent with our rates because building a trusted relationship with our customers is important to us,” Mr Sutton said.
“The fixed rate product appeals to customers looking for the certainty of knowing what their mortgage repayments will be for a set period; and with fixed rates dipping below 5%, that’s obviously going to be a very attractive proposition for many people.”
For a standard $250,000 home loan over 30 years, the monthly repayment for the fixed two-year period (at a rate of 4.96%) would be a hefty $245 lower than the Standard Variable Rate (at 6.51%).
“Our fixed loan offer compliments the great variable home loan rate we have at the moment of 5.46% for the first two years,” Mr Sutton said.
“We’re working hard to offer competitive products that deliver real everyday savings, even though regional banks haven’t benefited from easing wholesale funding costs to anywhere near the same degree as the major banks.
“Banking in Australia is pretty concentrated but we do what we can to encourage the big players to be more competitive.
“Ultimately though, our customers want the superior customer service we can offer by being a smaller more responsive bank and through our network of local BOQ branch managers, who as members of their local community, personally know their customers.
“Competition in the banking sector is intensifying and we’re happy to play our part because ultimately it’s the consumer who will benefit,” he said.
