Austral Mortgage Corporation | mortgage calculator | Mortgage rates | refinance | First Home Buyer | Mortgage broker | Mortgage | loan calculator | Offset home loans | Property Finance | Mortgage Offset

The benefits of using a loan calculator when borrowing in Australia

Check out Austral's comprehensive loan calculator tools

Most people in Australia, while keen to purchase a first home or investment property, are often unsure about how much they are able to borrow. A loan calculator is a quick and easy way to determine your borrowing capacity in Australia. A loan calculator will generally be quite easy to use and will provide you with the amount you can borrow and the monthly interest compounding and monthly payments against that loan amount.

The other benefit of a loan calculator is its ability to determine how much faster you can repay your loan if you are in a position to either:
(i) make a regular additional payment – for example you might increase the minimum repayment required under your mortgage by $100 per month. The loan calculator will show you how this can significantly reduce the term of your loan.
(ii) make a one-off lump sum payment – for example you may receive a bonus from your employer, an inheritance or gift of money and decide to apply this to reduce your outstanding loan balance. What impact will this have on the loan term? A loan calculator will give you the answer.

A loan calculator offers further advantages in that if it can provide you with calculations for different loan terms. In Australia, if you want to ascertain how much you would need to pay, to pay off your loan in say 15 years as opposed to the standard 25 or 30 year loan term, then you can easily change the term of the loan in the loan calculator and within seconds the loan calculator will provide you with the revised monthly instalment.

Recently, borrowers in Australia have been concerned about the effect that a rise in interest rates might have on their ability to make their loan repayments. Again the loan calculator allows you to enter a number of interest rates and calculates the amount by which your monthly instalment will increase. For example if you settle your loan when interest rates are at 7.75% p.a. what will be the impact of a Reserve Bank increase of 0.25%? By entering the rate as 8% in the loan calculator you will quickly ascertain how much more you will be required to pay each month.

A good loan calculator will also enable you to enter the frequency of your loan repayment and again show you how this will reduce your loan term. For example while most loan repayments in Australia are on a monthly basis you can choose to repay your loan on a weekly of fortnightly basis. A loan calculator will calculate the amount of the weekly or fortnightly payment for you.

By exploring the various fields within a loan calculator you can quickly determine how much you can borrow in Australia, the impact that additional repayments or rate changes will have on your loan and the effect of changing the frequency of your loan repayments.

A good loan calculator can provide you with a significant amount of information by which you can not only determine how much you can borrow in Australia but also how you can budget to repay your home loan faster.

[ Back ]

Home

About Austral

Our Products

Austral Deposit Bonds

Customer Login

Austral provides easy access to Manage your Loan Account Online. Click below to log-in or register for log-in if you haven't already done so. Join Referrer Programme & save $$$ off your mortgage.

Log-In

Newsletter Signup

Full Member of MFAA
Austral is a member of the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (formerly MIAA), the professional body for the mortgage industry.

PH: 02 9299 1833 / FAX: 02 9299 1874

TODAY: Thursday, 24th July, 2008

WEALTH MAXIMISER - INVESTOR ASSIST UPDATE - JUNE 2008
The ATO has recently published an edited version of a Private Ruling on its website: http://www.ato.gov.au/rba/content.asp?doc=/rba/content/81797.htm A taxpayer and client of Austral Mortgage, applied for the private ruling to seek confirmation from the ATO that if there was a shortfall between his investment income and his investment outgoings then that shortfall could be capitalised under the home and investment loan & line of credit structure noted in his application.

WEALTH MAXIMISER UPDATE - MAY 2008
Ever since the High Court decision in Hart's case, taxpayers have been seeking clarity from the ATO on the deductibility of capitalised interest in certain loan structures. On 16th April 2008 a favourable Private Ruling issued to an Austral client that provides insight into the ATO's current thinking on the subject.

My Choice
Austral has recently expanded its product offering through its My Choice loan initiative. My Choice provides borrowers with access to a wide range of lenders and loan products for residential, commercial and equipment finance, so no matter what your need our friendly and experienced staff can assist you.

Austral in the Community
Austral Mortgage has been a Principal Sponsor of the Winston Hills Little Athletics Club since October 2006. We are proud to be supporting this community project and congratulate the young athletes of WHLA for their commitment to and successes in the sport.

WEALTH MAXIMISER UPDATE - FEBRUARY 2008
Wealth Maximiser Update 12th February 2008 - We have advice from the ATO that it is well advanced on a binding Tax Determination regarding the deductibility of capitalised interest on a line of credit facility. Borrowers with both a home loan and an investment loan should consider including a capitalising line of credit within their loan structure or at least ascertaining from their lender that they could access such a facility by way of a simple variation of their existing mortgage.

Trans Tasman Finance
Did you know that Austral has a wholly owned subsidiary, Gem Home Loans Limited, in Auckland NZ - we are able to assist with organising mortgage finance for you should you be considering buying property in NZ.

AusComm Finance
AusComm is the specialist Construction and Development division of Austral Mortgage - if you are a developer seeking finance for construction purposes - residential, commercial, retail, industrial - give Peter McAuley a call on 0419 220 630 or email him peter.mcauley@australmortgage.com to discuss your funding requirements.

Mortgage Calculator
A number of excellent resource tools are now available on the internet for people in Australia seeking a loan to finance the purchase of a property or refinance an existing mortgage. One of the most useful and user friendly tools is a mortgage calculator. Before going too far in the purchase and /or borrowing process it is a worthwhile exercise to quickly gauge your borrowing capacity and also determine how your new mortgage repayments will impact on your personal cash flow. Mortgage calculator...

How can we help?
I would like more information on ...