G&C has undertaken a comprehensive review of the rates charged on our variable rate home loans and our savings/deposit products. With home loan rates already at historic lows, our priority at G&C has been to implement equitable rate changes that strike a fair balance between the competing needs of our borrowing and depositing members.
Although the extreme low rate environment is great news for home loan borrowers, we are very mindful that the vast majority of G&C members (around 90%) do not have a home loan. Many of our saving/depositing members are in retirement or semi-retirement and continue to suffer reduced income due to the impact of falling interest rates.
In order to accommodate these competing member interests, G&C has reduced the rates on all of our variable rate home loan products while also maintaining competitive (and in some cases above market) rates on our most popular savings products.
Home Loan Rate Changes
The rates on most G&C variable rate home loan products (for both new and existing borrowers) will be reduced by 0.25%. This 0.25% rate reduction applies to 12 of G&C’s 16 product types and published rates across our range of owner-occupied and residential investor home loan products. The remaining 4 product rates (including those for our “First Home Owner” and “Basic” loan products) will be reduced by 0.15%, as the rates on those products are already heavily discounted. The interest rates for any existing borrowers who rather have the benefit of a specifically-customised and negotiated interest rate (ie they do not currently pay the published product rate) will have their loan rate reduced by 0.15%.
The reduced home loan rates will be available for new loan applications from 10 March 2020. The interest rates for existing loans will be reduced with effect on 1 April 2020.
Details of the rate reductions to our entire suite of home loan products can be found on our Rates & Fees page. For existing borrowers, details of your interest rate reduction will be reflected in Online Banking after 1 April 2020 and your statement of account for that period.
Savings Rate Changes
G&C’s new savings rates can be viewed on our Rates & Fees page. Although it has been necessary to lower the rates on some G&C savings products in order to cover the cost of the loan rate reductions, at 1.50%p.a. the new upper tier rate on our popular Pension Plus Savings Account remains higher than similar products available elsewhere in the market. The upper tier rate of 1.75%p.a. on G&C’s Inet Saver Product is also very competitive compared to the rates offered by major banks.
The new rates on G&C’s savings products took effect on 9 March 2020, with the exception of changes to our Bonus Saver accounts which will take effect on 1 April 2020.
If you require any further information about the impact of the above rate reductions, please refer to our website or contact us.
