Why are Kiwi’s turning to mortgage advisers instead of going directly to the bank?
It’s really quite simple.
A good mortgage adviser is a person that you can rely on.
They will be professional and can shop for a home loan that is going to suit you.
There are plenty of choices available with each bank having a few options, and the non-banks offering alternatives too.
Selecting the right home loan is important.
In many cases the home loan will be your biggest ever financial commitment and yet so many people have been going to the bank and accepting what they are given rather than having a look at the options and selecting a loan that is suitable.
Get A Home Loan That Suits You
When we talk about a home loan that suits you we are not just talking about a lender that will approve a loan or the lender that offers the lowest home loan rate.
There are a range of home loans that have different features that may offer better flexibility to enable you to pay the loan off faster. This is always more important than just getting the lowest interest rate today, but it’s something that banks rarely talk about.
If you are buying a television or car then the salesperson shows you the features, so why doesn’t a banker tell you about the loan features?
When you buy new clothes they don’t have a “one size fit’s all” and instead you will chose a style and size that suits you. So why would you go directly to a bank and be given a home loan that doesn’t really suit?
We believe that there are a few reasons.
Firstly many bank staff only know about their own banks loans and through the banks training might be able to explain how they work, but has little knowledge of what the other banks might offer. For this reason they focus on price (lowest rates) as it’s easy to compare that, but even then they are typically just looking at the advertised interest rates not what you might be offered.
Bank staff can only offer the one banks home loans. It would be highly unlikely for a staff member at ‘say’ ANZ to suggest that an Offset loan would suit you best when they do not have that as an option, and therefore would need to send you to BNZ, Kiwibank or Westpac. Or, for a person at BNZ knowing that you want a revolving credit facility with a non-reducing limit sending you to ANZ, ASB or Westpac. Bank staff tend to focus on the features that their home loans offer and will probably not even mention that there are other options that would suit you better. After all they do not want you to be forced to go to another bank.
Many bank staff are not advisers. They do not have the training or access to the choices that a mortgage adviser has and so can only tell you about that banks own home loans.
One Size Does Not Fit All!
Too often we see people that have been set up into the wrong home loan.
It’s easy to see how this happens, but it does make it right and in fact often has cost the people a lot.
Banks have made home loans into a “product” and instead of finding a home loan that suits a situation, they will try and fit the situation into a specific home loan. This concept suits the banks as it is easier, but if most definitely does not suit a lot of peoples situations. They say you cannot fit a round peg in a square hole and it seems that this is what the banks often try to do.
As mortgage advisers we often have to pick up and fix things after the banks have been involved. We can see how little thought has gone into their recommendations and unfortunately they take no responsibility for the situations that they put people in, or the extra costs that they cause.
In fact many people at the bank tell people they do not need an adviser and instead should deal directly with the bank. This is a hugely selfish approach by the banks as if they thought about these comments they should know that an adviser can offer better choices than any bank can, and furthermore that mortgage advisers are actually qualified to give advice on home loans. Regardless of all the other good reasons to use a mortgage adviser, getting good advice should be at the top of the list.
The banks should know better.
