Banks and their access bonds

AntennaMan

AntennaMan

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Good morning

We are in the process of getting home loan quotes from the different banks. Nedbank was first to give us one and they gave a decent rate + 30% off of the bond costs. Hopefully the other banks will give us their quotes in the next day or so.

Now my question. Whichever bank we choose, we want their access bond so that we can pay in extra to save on interest in the long run.

Which bank do you have an access bond with and are you happy with it?
 
AntennaMan said:
Good morning

We are in the process of getting home loan quotes from the different banks. Nedbank was first to give us one and they gave a decent rate + 30% off of the bond costs. Hopefully the other banks will give us their quotes in the next day or so.

Now my question. Whichever bank we choose, we want their access bond so that we can pay in extra to save on interest in the long run.

Which bank do you have an access bond with and are you happy with it?
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Nedbank seems to be the one who always respond first. I also got mine (access bond) from them.

Haven't started paying yet as I'm still waiting for the registration which can only be done when the new complex is registered as a "township" apparently.

So far I've been quite impressed with the service I've received from Nedbank.
 
I have two bonds with FNB at the moment. They offer a flexi bond option which allows you to save money in the bond and take it out at any point in time.

So if for example I put in R1000 extra this month, that R1000 will reduce my capital amount that I have left to pay by R1000 and thus I pay less interest on the bond due to owing less capital. This R1000 is also then immediately available to take out of the bond again at any point in time, which will then just increase the capital you owe with R1000 again which makes the interest more again from that point on. This is the best bond option we have in this country in my opinion due to the flexibility.

Also, when I took out my second bond, FNB paid all the bond costs associated with it, I only paid transfer costs. Both bonds they gave to me at 100% LTV and they gave both to me at prime and the other one prime - 0.4%.

Hope that helps.
 
Maverick154 said:
I have two bonds with FNB at the moment. They offer a flexi bond option which allows you to save money in the bond and take it out at any point in time.

So if for example I put in R1000 extra this month, that R1000 will reduce my capital amount that I have left to pay by R1000 and thus I pay less interest on the bond due to owing less capital. This R1000 is also then immediately available to take out of the bond again at any point in time, which will then just increase the capital you owe with R1000 again which makes the interest more again from that point on. This is the best bond option we have in this country in my opinion due to the flexibility.

Also, when I took out my second bond, FNB paid all the bond costs associated with it, I only paid transfer costs. Both bonds they gave to me at 100% LTV and they gave both to me at prime and the other one prime - 0.4%.

Hope that helps.
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This is generally how access bonds are supposed to work, isn't it? Any additional funds you pay into an access bond decreases the capital amount, so you save on interest payment. This additional amount should be accessible for withdrawal if you want to make use of it.

I quite like the FNB flexi option, since everything is spelled out in simple terms. Nedbank has a product called NedRevolve, which I think is their access bond option, but there is something weird there that I still want clarity on.
 
Method said:
Nedbank seems to be the one who always respond first. I also got mine (access bond) from them.

Haven't started paying yet as I'm still waiting for the registration which can only be done when the new complex is registered as a "township" apparently.

So far I've been quite impressed with the service I've received from Nedbank.
Click to expand...

Is this the Nedbank NedRevolve product? Their website is a bit unclear as to what access bond facilities they offer.
 
AntennaMan said:
This is generally how access bonds are supposed to work, isn't it? Any additional funds you pay into an access bond decreases the capital amount, so you save on interest payment. This additional amount should be accessible for withdrawal if you want to make use of it.

I quite like the FNB flexi option, since everything is spelled out in simple terms. Nedbank has a product called NedRevolve, which I think is their access bond option, but there is something weird there that I still want clarity on.
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That is technically how they are all supposed to work yeah but I am not sure if they all do. I know SA home loans do not offer a bond like this, they give you no access to any money after it has been paid to them. But as for the other banks I am not sure what their offerings are like, hopefully someone else that has a bond like this will comment.
 
I have been with STD bank for previous and current bond. Current bond is 15 years old, 20 years term. I have always been ahead with payments. I am not happy with the service now as about 6 months ago the bank, without informing me or consulting with me, closed the Access part of the bond.
 
KingRat1 said:
I have been with STD bank for previous and current bond. Current bond is 15 years old, 20 years term. I have always been ahead with payments. I am not happy with the service now as about 6 months ago the bank, without informing me or consulting with me, closed the Access part of the bond.
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That's a bit crappy. I had my primary account with SB for the better part of 20 years, but last year I had so many problems, that I moved banks. Couldn't be happier. Their current offer also isn't great.
 
We've got a bond with ABSA with that flexi option. Seems to work well, anything paid extra reflects immediately, you can link it on internet banking, pretty easy to see how the extra payments affect the interest. We've never tried to take cash out though so can't comment on that process. But pretty happy with their service so far.
 
Sepeng said:
We've got a bond with ABSA with that flexi option. Seems to work well, anything paid extra reflects immediately, you can link it on internet banking, pretty easy to see how the extra payments affect the interest. We've never tried to take cash out though so can't comment on that process. But pretty happy with their service so far.
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We have the same

Easy to get money out , if bond is in you and partners name both have to be at the bank to sign documents.

If you have an absa bank account money will be transfered to said account otherwise you get a bank cheque to deposit into account at other bank
 
KingRat1 said:
I have been with STD bank for previous and current bond. Current bond is 15 years old, 20 years term. I have always been ahead with payments. I am not happy with the service now as about 6 months ago the bank, without informing me or consulting with me, closed the Access part of the bond.
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this happened to me too - apparently if you don't "withdraw" every 6 months it automatically closes the facility. Phone them, kick up a fuss and they will reactivate it.
 
I am with Nedbank and the access bond thing is seriously awesome with them. You load it up on your internet banking profile and then its instant to move cash in and out. We keep all our spare savings/budget money in there as it is instantly accessible and saves us interest.

My only complaint about the Nedbank approach is that their system is geared towards making you pay for 20 years. Initially when I put spare money in after a while I noticed them reducing my monthly debit order to keep the term at 20 years. I put an end to that foolishness by specifying my own debit order amount (wanted to put in extra every month anyways).

So yes, Nedbank is great if you bank and bond with them. If you decide to do banking one place and bond another then transfers are a lot more complicated and take a few days to clear so be careful of that.

Last point is obviously the Statement they generate is rather useless if you have money going in and out constantly. It will still show the 20 year term rather than reality and will give the debit order amount of what they want it to be to make the term 20 years, not what you have fixed it as. Still, I track my bond with my own custom spreadsheet anyways to work out when it will end with all my deposits and withdraws.
 
I'm with ABSA's Flexi Reserve option too. I use my Flexi Reserve as a savings account, i.e. I don't have a separate savings account. Any money saved I put it into the flexi reserve, which reduces my interest rate.
 
When one withdraws from a flexi reserve account, is your monthly home loan instalment suppose to increase? Mine usually does.
 
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