NAB's rates will remain on hold

Well, well well......I didn't expect that.

NAB to hold Standard Variable Rate at 5.24% for now

Today, NAB announced it will continue to hold its Standard Variable Rate for home loan customers at 5.24% for now.

We’ve made this decision for our customers. We know they have choice, and we don’t take it for granted.

We want to reward our loyal customers for longer.

 

I do a decent amount of business with the NAB. I can't say they're the good guys (which bank truly is), but I think there's a lot worse out there.

One thing I do like about them is they will apply the same pricing to existing customers as they're doing for new customers. You don't see this with Westpac or CBA. Their servicing calculator tends to be comparatively generous as well, although I can't give a definitive reason for it.

 

They will probably see a big chunk of P&I owner occ loans come in the door now that they will have the lowest rate in that space for the basic loan of the majors.

Just getting some market share whilst selling to the public they are the good guys (for now anyway )

 

Many lenders (big and small) have been tweaking certain rates for some time now. Most of the second tier lenders and some of the big 4 have increased their basic home loan interest rates over the last few months. In some cases it's been under the guise of 'product consolidation'. There's been an almost universal increase on investment basic home loan rates and interest only varieties.

This doesn't really make the news because the press tends to monitor the 'standard variable rate'. It's by far the most popular product (with discounts), but it can be argues that the banks increasing rates at this time are just bringing this product in line with the others that nobody has really noticed.

Overall it's been coming. Customers continually ask for bigger discounts (plenty of threads here exchanging information to that effect). In essence the banks are saying on one had, here's an extra 0.1% off, then they increase rates by 0.1%. Customers haven't really gained anything, but those that don't constantly renegotiate are definitely the losers.

Banks have simply found a way to make the system work in their favour overall. I can't see a way around this because the best consumers can hope for is by playing the game they only break even. If you don't play the game you definitely loose.