Mortgage Interest Saver Account changes

You will be sent notice to the postal address we have on file. In addition, where you have opted in for electronic notices, additional notice will be sent to your NetBank inbox.

Eligible personal customers can open an Everyday Offset Account to offset their Standard Variable Rate Home Loan. Any money you put into your Everyday Offset Account reduces the balance on which we charge interest. This means you’ll only be paying interest on the difference.

Every cent in an Everyday Offset will offset the balance of the home loan - the bigger the savings, the faster a loan could be paid off.

Please refer to Everyday Offset page for more information, or see the instructions below

1. Open a Smart Access transaction account (If you don’t already have one)

First, you’ll need to open a Smart Access transaction account which you can then switch to an Everyday Offset.

In the CommBank app:

• Select the ‘Apply for a product’ tile
• Select the ‘Everyday accounts’ tile
• Select the ‘Open now’ button and follow the prompts to open a Smart Access transaction account
• Switch your transaction account to an Everyday Offset using the instructions below.
  

In NetBank:

• Search 'Offset' in the search bar and select 'Manage my offset' from the dropdown menu
• Click on the ‘Open Smart Access account’ button and follow the instructions to open a Smart Access transaction account
• Switch your transaction account to an Everyday Offset using the instructions below.

2. Switch your Smart Access account to an Everyday Offset account

 Once you have opened your Smart Access account, follow these steps to switch it to an Everyday Offset account:

In the CommBank app:

• Go to the 'Accounts' tab and choose the relevant home loan from your account list
• Select 'Manage' then scroll down to 'Link offset accounts' under 'Manage loan'
• Select the 'Link an offset' button
• Confirm your home loan and select the eligible transaction account to switch
• Select 'Confirm' to complete the process.

In NetBank:

• Search 'Offset' in the search bar and select 'Manage my offset' from the dropdown menu
• Click on the 'Link an offset' button
• Confirm your home loan and select the eligible transaction account to switch
• Click 'Confirm' to complete the process.

3. Transfer your MISA balance to your Everyday Offset

 After setting up and linking your Everyday Offset account the last step is to transfer your MISA balance. Once your MISA balance is $0, we will automatically close your account. You don’t need to do anything further.

To transfer you balance follow these steps:
 
In the CommBank app:

• Select ‘Pay’
• Select ‘Transfer between accounts’
• Enter the amount, a description and select ‘Done’
• Select ‘Transfer’ then confirm when you want to schedule the transfer
•  Select ‘Share’ to email, message or print the Transfer receipt or simply choose ‘Done’.

In NetBank:

• Select ‘Transfers & BPAY’
• Choose the accounts you would like to transfer from and to
•  Enter the payment details, then select ‘Next’
•  Select ‘Transfer’ to confirm the payment.

An Everyday Offset is a separate account linked to an eligible variable rate home loan, while redraw is a feature available for some eligible variable rate home loans. Both can help to:

• reduce the amount of interest you pay on your home loan
• pay off your home loan sooner 
   

A redraw facility allows you to access additional payments that you've made on your home loan. For weekly and fortnightly direct debit payers, only funds over and above the minimum required repayments will be available. The money in your redraw account may reduce over the life of your loan so that, by the end of your agreed loan term, both your loan balance and the available redraw will be zero.

Tell me more about redraw vs offset 

At the end of the notice period, we will transfer all money in a MISA to one of the following accounts: 

In order of priority

1. Everyday Offset Account linked to same home loan as the MISA with the same method of operation and ownership as the MISA
   If funds are transferred into your Everyday Offset Account linked to the same eligible home loan there will be no impact to how offsetting works.
   
   
2. Transaction account with the same method of operation and ownership as the MISA
   If funds are transferred from your MISA into your Transaction Account, the funds will no longer offset the balance of your Home Loan linked to your MISA. This may result in higher interest being charged and an increase in your repayments.
   
   
3. The redraw of the home loan linked to the MISA
   If funds are transferred into your home loan redraw it will reduce the balance of the home loan and this may mean you do not incur additional interest compared to holding the funds in your MISA, however the you may not be able to access the entire redraw balance.
   You may not have access to all the funds transferred into your redraw because:
   
   - This is because any repayments made towards the monthly minimum repayment, uncleared cheques and pending redraw adjustments will come off the re-draw balance.
   -  If the home loan repayments are behind or fall behind, the shortfall may also be automatically deducted from the redraw balance.
   - The available redraw on a variable home loan may reduce so that by the end of the agreed loan term, both the loan balance and the available redraw will be zero. Adjustments to the available redraw will occur on the monthly repayment date to help manage this.
   - The rate at which the redraw balance will reduce will vary depending on your loan and your situation. To see an example of what this looks like, and for more information on how redraw works please refer to our Redraw guide

If we cannot transfer the MISA funds as per the above, we'll send you communication to advise the steps we'll take to close your MISA. This may include sending a cheque for the remaining funds.

The options will vary depending on each loan and customer situation.

We will only place your funds into an Everyday Offset with the same name(s) and authorities as your MISA . In addition, the Everyday Offset must: 

• be active
• be linked to the same Home Loan as your MISA
• not have any third-party operators (i.e someone who is not the account holder)

If your other MISA(s) are not listed in the notice we will not close these accounts. You may receive notice in the future should any other accounts be impacted.