Greater Building Society fixed-rate home mortgage undercuts major banks

Larry SchlesingerSeptember 25, 2011

The Greater Building Society has cut its one year fixed-rate mortgage to 5.94%, well below that of the some of the major banks.

The rate is nearly 1% lower than Westpac’s one-year fixed rate (6.89%) and 0.45% lower than ANZ’s (6.39%) offering, currently the best one year rate of the Big Four banks.

The building society has also reduced its three-year fixed home loan rate to 6.35% per annum

Customers with a Greater fixed loan revert to the building society’s lowest (basic) standard variable rate (currently 6.94% per year) once their fixed rate period ends.

Product manager David Bryde calls the practice of taking consumers from a fixed rate to a high standard variable rate “the revert rort”.

“Having a fair revert rate as well as low fees and charges is why our comparison rate is so much lower than our competitors even when our headline rates are similar,” he says.

The Newcastle-based building society has 250,000 members across 66 branches in NSW, southeast Queensland and in Townsville.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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