If your broker has sent you this link, it means we’re looking at a process called a ‘Fast Refi’ for your refinance application, which is an option to use a particular team within your lender’s system to significantly speed up the timeframes on a refinance for you, reducing it from up to a month right down to only a few weeks. The reason these types of applications are so fast is that the transfer of the mortgage from your existing bank over to your new one won’t happen until after your new loan is drawn down.
Only certain lenders on our panel will do this particular type of refinance- at the date of writing this in January 2024, those lenders are ANZ, AMP, Bank Of Queensland, Bank Of Melbourne, Beyond Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Heritage Bank, ING, MyState, NAB, Suncorp, and Westpac.
To provide you with a brief overview, the Fast Refi process has a few key points that work a little differently from a standard refinance.
Firstly, the new lender will automatically include a buffer amount in your loan to cover various aspects of this fast refinance transaction.This buffer amount will include the following: the next month’s worth of interest that will be accrued for your loan at your existing lender as well as your next repayment amount, any early repayment costs or exit fees from your current loan (if applicable), an estimated discharge fee of $350, and an additional buffer amount of $500. As mentioned above, the way these loans work is that the mortgage isn’t technically transferred over until after your initial loan drawdown from the new lender, so your new lender has to make sure they cover any possible costs accrued between your new loan being opened and your old loan being closed out.
Secondly, they’re really strict on whose name is on the title of your existing mortgage, so if you’ve had a change of name for any reason or if the reason for refinancing is to add a new partner to your loan and title, we’ll need to sort extra paperwork for this first before submitting the application.
Thirdly, your new lender will have their own requirements or restrictions on this type of application. Fixed loans are also not usually on the eligibility list. Your broker will check your new lender’s policies to determine suitability for you.
Essentially if you have a quick, straightforward, residential mortgage loan that you want to refinance, this could be the way to go!
If all of the above sounds like it will work for your unique situation, please let your broker know as soon as possible, and they’ll let you know what we need in order to get to work.