were should spare money go?

How hard is it to change to a lender which will provide an offset? Is it the same as applying for a new loan again? I have settlement in two weeks so I imagine it's not a good time to change now.

 

You should seek credit advice. It is likely to be easy if you have just qualified for a loan that hasn't settled yet.

 

Craig is not going to get a new loan approved in time for settlement in two weeks. The vendor will not want to wait any longer for their settlement. There will be fees to change lender within two years and a huge fee within one year. He will know more about loans after this timeframe.

 

And a discussion about what loan features never came up until now ? I would argue this is a big gap in the credit advice. Or you went direct.
Many lenders offer offsets BUT the rate may rise. A full featured v basic cheapo rate loan. So carefully consider the value of having a offset. If you cant affordto pay extra it may limit the value. But if you can and plan to later rent the property it could be major. This is where merits of broker v direct application differ a lot. Its like walking in and buying the cheap car to learn later when you pick it up there is a "deluxe model" that costs a fraction more but has more features you really like. eg better finishes, carplay, folding mirrors, cruise control, alloys.

 

Are mortgage brokers prevented from suggesting certain features if the borrower doesnt ask for it, or asks for some conflicting feature?

 

No.
Job is to educate clients on features they don't know about, especially if it's in their best interest, 99% of the time it is.
Think this is second or 3rd thread where offset has come up for the OP but they advised they are just using redraw as the white label lender they're using doesn't have offset features.
OP also mentioned they wanted fixed rate after settlement, even if switching lenders most don't offer 100% offset on fixed rates, some do though.
It seems to me like all of the bigger picture stuff wasn't really discussed with their broker at the beginning, I could be wrong, just seems that way to me based on the threads OP has created.

 

Say the borrower asks for the loan with the lowest rate. The broker is allowed, or at least not prevented by the rules, to suggest a loan that has a higher rate but has an offset, or better serviceability?

Seems that the easier path would be to either just tick the boxes and do generic loans for newbies, or seek the challenging (more interesting?) stuff and work with experienced investors or developers or commercial. Most new people fight good advice. And then jump onto the loan with the slickest website. Because they can't differentiate between good and bad advice, but that makes it hard for the person giving the suggestions.

 

The broker can suggest anything that is not unsuitable.

 

Under Best interest Duty the broker needs to clearly demonstrate/justify why they've recommended a loan product that has a higher rate of interest.
If client asks for lowest rate but maximum serviceability then the broker can present both options and let the client decide what their priority is.

For some people that may be true, most of those go direct anyway, then only seek out a broker when they run into servicing difficulty or similar, because they didn't know what they didn't know.

 

It is for this reason that I always suggest that newbies contact a broker from the forum, because most of them are intelligent enough to let the newbies know about offsets etc, whereas any old broker off the street is like rolling the dice at the casino. You might get someone half decent, but you might get someone shocking.