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How to Break Up with your Lender
You’re just one step away from experiencing a better home loan.
Now let’s break up with your current lender, woohoo! At this point your current lender may suddenly notice you exist. A lot of our customers told us their previous lender panicked when they got the news. They’ll try anything to make you stay. But we all know it’s too little, too late 👎 Here are the 5 tricks they’ll likely try on you with some tips on how you can be prepared:
1. "We can offer you cashback"
Don’t let short-term gains turn into a long-term pain. Remind them that by moving to Athena, the amount you’re going to save over the life of your loan far exceeds a once-off cashback.
Tell them your business can’t be bought! Our customers will save on average an estimated $61,000 over the life of their loan*! They can’t match that.
2. “We can drop your rate to match your new lender”
Firstly, why do they wait until you leave? 🙄 Secondly, they might drop it now, but it might not stay low for long. You don’t want to get stung by rate creep. Remember, if we tempt new customers with a lower rate, we’ll instantly pass it on to our existing customers who have an Athena like-for-like loan. It’s only fair!
Plus, with AcceleRATES, the more you pay down your loan, the more we’ll drop your rate. Automatically.
3. “We can offer you a fixed rate”
Offering a fixed rate is their way of stopping customers switching to a better deal. If you do move over to a fixed rate and rates drop then you’re stuck with your rate or hit with a hefty ‘break fee’ if you want to get out.
Remind them that you want the flexibility to make extra repayments and pay down your home loan faster.
4. “It’ll cost you to leave - you’ll have to pay an exit fee”
The bunch of bankers will whack you with an exit fee. And think that’s a valid reason for you to stay put 😤 It’s like they’re punishing you for leaving! Tell them it’s exactly one of the reasons you're out.
Athena doesn’t charge you fees. Not even an exit fee. You’ll make up for the exit fee super quickly with the money you’ll save from joining Athena.
5. “It will take a while to close your account”
They’ll try and drag it out, so they keep making as much money off you as possible. But they have an obligation to process the transfer as quickly as possible, so tell them to release your loan in days, not weeks.
Send your completed discharge form back to us as soon as you can as this formalises your request, putting greater pressure on your lender to release your loan ASAP. And you can start paying off your home loan sooner with us!
Remember why you’re leaving
You’ve made the right decision moving to Athena. You’ve been mistreated for far too long. A bit of cash or short-term rate drop doesn’t make up for it. We’ll help you leave that mortgage behind. Loyalty is royalty here - we put our existing customers first and we will never sting you with fees! Our features line your pockets, not the banks. Everything we do is to help you pay down your home loan faster.
When you leave us, it’ll be because you’ve paid off your loan 😍 Now let’s get that happening ASAP!
*The interest savings estimate is an average of modelled savings of real customers who have refinanced to Athena since launch. The savings are modelled over time estimates only, and are not a prediction. The actual future savings of these customers may be higher or lower. The estimated savings depend on assumptions that may change over the life of the loan, such as future interest rates and future borrower repayment behaviour.
In making the average savings estimate, we assume the rates of the existing lender and Athena continue for the life of the loan, and we do not include the fees which may be charged by the existing lender. The remaining term and repayment frequencies are assumed to be the same as the Athena loan, and all repayments are assumed to be made on time with no redraws or credit limit increases.
Every borrower’s situation is different. Your actual savings opportunity may differ from this average.