Your loan account has features that may assist you with your current and future needs.
Please take a moment to consider these options to help you to understand whether these may assist you with your financial situation.
You might be paying more than you are contractually required to pay on your home loan. You may have set up your repayments in this way on purpose or it may have happened as a result of reductions in your home loan interest rate over time.
While the additional repayments over the contractual amount made to your home loan account means you may pay off your loan faster, you can also choose to reduce your loan repayment amount to the minimum contractual repayment (including any monthly account keeping fees) if you need to.
This can help to minimise your overall monthly outgoings and give you a bit more money to cover your other daily essential expenses like groceries or utility bills.
Things to consider
If you have been making extra repayments on your home loan, you may have access to extra funds that you have paid to your home loan account. You can redraw these funds if you have them available.
What are the pros?
- There is no change to the credit limit on your loan
- You’re using your own money
- No impact to your credit history
What are the cons?
- The financial buffer you had built up will be reduced
- Your loan balance owing will increase by the amounts you redraw
- If you wanted access to excess funds in the future, there will be less money available
Things to consider
- The minimum redraw amount on all Pepper Money Home Loans is $1,000 for a manual redraw application (one that you make via phone or email to our Customer Service team) – this can be paid to your nominated account or to a third party, and $50 for an online redraw when you want to send the money to a nominated bank account.
- To find out whether you have redraw funds available and to access online redraw facilities, please log onto Loan Service Net (LSN). Learn about my.peppermoney.
- To request a manual redraw, please complete the attached form and email it to service@pepper.com.au
- For all other enquiries, please call Pepper’s Customer Service team on 137 377 Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 6:00pm AEDST.
An offset sub-account is a feature that is linked to your loan account. Any money in this linked offset sub-account can be used to offset the balance of the home loan, which reduces the amount of interest charged that month.
The money in the offset sub-account can be accessed via the Visa Debit Card linked to the home loan account to make payments or withdraw cash. Learn more about offset sub-accounts.
What are the pros?
- No fees
- No impact to credit score/credit repayment history
What are the cons?
- As the money in your offset sub-account offsets the balance on your loan, if the balance in the offset sub-account is reduced, the interest reduction is less
Things to consider
- If you have a Visa Debit card attached to your offset sub-account, this is another way that you can access your sub-account balance
- The daily card transaction limit is $5,000 and the daily ATM withdrawal limit per card is $1020 (the extra $20 is to cover fees charged by VISA). The limit on contactless debit card transactions has been temporarily increased to $200.
- It’s easy to change or re-set your PIN with Pepper’s online customer portal – just log in to Loan Service Net (LSN) and go to Account Options > Account Details to select or change your card PIN
Your home’s equity is the market value of your property minus what you owe on your existing home loan. There are many different reasons why you might access your home equity. Perhaps you’re looking to consolidate several debts into one monthly mortgage repayment to help you get on top of your finances. Or you have unexpected financial demands you need to sort out. Whatever the case, you can use your equity to free up cash for a variety of approved purposes.
Two ways you can access your equity
You can access all or part of your equity. And you have a few options up your sleeve to do so. You can either refinance your existing mortgage or if you prefer, borrow on your equity.
- Mortgage Refinancing
You may also be able to refinance your existing mortgage to have access to the current market rates or other loan products that you may be eligible for, in addition to being able to borrow more on top of your original loan amount. - Additional Advance
You may be eligible to borrow additional funds on top of your current loan amount
Things to consider
- Any application for credit is subject to our credit criteria and eligibility requirements. Terms and conditions, fees and charges apply
- You should consider your ability to meet your repayments currently and in the future
- Read more about accessing equity in your home.
Reduction to your loan repayment or a repayment break
When you encounter a period of financial stress, you can contact us to apply for either:
- a reduction to your loan repayment amount for a set period of time, or,
- a repayment break which involves putting a pause on making your monthly contractual repayments for a period of time, as agreed with us.
What are the pros?
- Either reduced repayments or no scheduled repayments are an option for the agreed time period
- This won’t impact your credit repayment history
What are the cons?
- Your scheduled repayments will most likely increase once the repayment break has ended to ensure that your loan is repaid within the remaining loan term
- Interest will grow over the repayment break period which means you are likely to pay more in interest over the life of the loan
With either of these options, interest will continue to be added to your loan account, but because payment will be delayed the additional interest amount will be added onto your overall loan balance. This will mean that your repayments will increase for the remainder of your loan term. Keeping this in mind, the more you can pay now the better, assuming you are able to.
Read more about the repayment holiday terms in our Fact Sheet.
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