Yes we have a redraw

5 min read

Athena’s redraw breaks free from expensive and restrictive redraws that used to exist. It’s fee free and conveniently available online. It makes life easier, avoids the costs of an offset, and pays off your loan faster. And putting your cash here versus a standard savings account makes sense because your money saves you paying interest at our regular low rates on that amount.

By making extra payments you instantly reduce your principal loan balance and the interest you’re charged on that extra amount. Athena reduces the amount of your home loan balance by 100% of the amount in your Redraw. Feed her and she’ll look after you.

A heads up! The money in your redraw does not count towards your LVR loan amount. If you're looking to reduce your loan amount to get to a lower AcceleRATE tier, you'll need to request for a limit reduction. Read more about how AcceleRATES works here.

You can access funds in your Redraw anytime you want with your own BSB and Account Number. Just transfer out to your linked account, or any other payee with a bank account. The extra funds you stash in your redraw also provide a valuable buffer to use when things get tight.

Unlike some other lenders, Athena won’t sting you with fees for moving your money in and out of your redraw facility, or impose minimum transaction limits ;). We have daily transfer out limits as standard fraud protections, and can arrange larger redraws for you when you contact us.

Athena’s Redraw helps you pay off your home loan faster. Check this out…if the amount of your loan is $350,000, and you had $50,000 in your Redraw, we’d calculate the interest on $300,000. And that interest will be less (at 3% interest for 30 years it would be roughly $34,000 less in fact!). So the more you add, the less you’ll pay on your loan, and the faster you get to the finish line.

And never will be. That means we’re not covered by the government’s financial claims scheme, which guarantees “traditional” offset accounts up to $250,000 if bank lenders fail.

But don’t worry. If something was to happen to Athena (very unlikely!) we have contracts in place where a back-up servicer can honor your loan and agreements you have with us. That should include your Redraw facility. Your other option would be reduce the balance of your loan by making a lump sum payment into your loan using your redraw funds. That way you pay down your debt sooner and this can reduce your repayments if you want.

Yes

Generally Yes

Generally Yes — although a few offsets are still less than a 100%

Yes

Generally Yes

Not often — offsets generally have a higher % rate

Yes

Generally Yes

Not often — offsets often have an account fee or package fees

Yes

Generally Yes

Generally Yes

Yes

Sometimes

Generally Yes

No

Sometimes

Generally Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Sometimes

Generally Yes

Yes

Sometimes

Yes

No

Not often

Yes

If you have an investment loan and intend on taking money out of your redraw for non-investment purposes you may not be able to claim the interest on that amount as tax deductible. And get some tax advice if you’re thinking of using your redraw from an investment loan for non-investment purposes.