Home loan offset account

What is a full interest offset account?

An offset account is simply an everyday transaction account linked to your home loan. With full offset, 100% of the money in your offset counts towards reducing your home loan interest payments.

Each day, when calculating interest, we'll offset the balance in your linked offset account/s against the amount you owe on your loan.

Let’s say you have:

A $500k home loan balance
$40k in your ‘fully offset’ transaction account linked to your home loan.

You'll pay off your loan faster while the $40k remains in your offset, as you'll only pay interest on $460k of your home loan – plus you can access your $40k anytime. Pretty handy, right?

Why park money in your offset account?

You could save thousands in interest over the life of your loan when you regularly deposit money in your offset and don't withdraw it.

Fully offset

Save daily. Every single dollar in your offset reduces the interest on your linked Standard Variable Rate home loan.

Multiple offset accounts

You can have up to 99 offset accounts linked to your home loan which gives you the freedom to separate your savings.

24/7 freedom

It's also a Complete Freedom transaction account – with a Visa Debit card, zero account keeping fees, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Package option

Our Advantage Package includes a home loan interest rate discount, fee waivers, and no annual credit card fee (worth up to $295). A $395 annual package fee applies^#.

Calculate what you could save with offset

How can I take full advantage of my offset account?

The more you park in your offset everyday account, the harder your offset account works to reduce the home loan interest you pay. Here are a few tips:

Have your pay deposited directly into your offset. Every dollar reduces your home loan interest every day.
If your home loan variable interest rate is higher than your savings rate, park spare money in your offset instead.
Consider using a rewards credit card, and repay in full before the due date. Our Amplify Rewards cards give you 2+ weeks to repay your previous month’s bill. Let’s say you bought a couch on day one of your billing month – and didn’t pay your card bill until the due date – you can leave the money in your offset account for 6 weeks. Bear in mind, if you don’t pay in full by the due day, credit card interest rates can be higher than home loan rates.

Tip

If you package your BankSA home loan, there’s no annual credit card fee – saving you up to $295 ($395 annual home loan package fee applies).^#

Is a mortgage offset account a good idea?

A few things to think about:

Home loans with an offset account often have higher rates and fees.
Your Complete Freedom offset account balance won’t earn interest, but you’ll save interest on your home loan. Savings account interest rate is higher than your home loan rate? Consider keeping spare money in your savings.
If your offset account balance is likely to stay very low, it might not be worth paying for the offset feature. Instead, our variable Basic home loan comes with no ongoing fees (monthly or establishment fees) and a redraw facility that lets you make unlimited extra repayments and more.

What if a large offset balance is too tempting?

Having thousands readily available in your everyday transaction account can be a spending temptation for some. You can use your redraw facility to transfer any amount in (and out of) your loan account.

FAQs

How does a 100% offset account work?

All the money sitting in your day-to-day Complete Freedom transaction offset account counts towards 'offsetting' your BankSA Standard Variable Rate home loan interest.

Interest is calculated daily and you’re charged interest monthly, so only the net amount (loan balance minus offset balance for that day) attracts interest.
For an offset account to work best, any amount added to the account should be deposited and not withdrawn to reduce the interest payable on your loan.
Plus, you can put money in or take money out anytime and there’s no minimum balance.

2 ways to save interest:

Each dollar in your offset lowers your daily home loan interest. When this interest rate is higher than savings interest rates, your offset interest saved exceeds the interest you'd earn.
Owing less interest lowers your compounding interest (paying interest on your interest) helping you pay off your loan sooner.

Is it better to pay extra into my mortgage or offset?

It depends how you’ll use your offset account. The good news is, whether you park your spare money in your home loan or your offset account, you save the same amount of interest on your home loan.

Your redraw facility

Redraw is a feature on our loans that lets you withdraw your home loan extra repayments, and there’s no fee to do so.

Variable rate home loans offer unlimited extra repayments.
Daily redraw limit: $100k through Internet Banking, our app and by phone; $30k in-branch.

More on your redraw facility

Example

Rudi’s $2k/month pay is deposited into their transaction account and they have $30k spare savings. Here are 3 potential options:

Rudi could leave the whole $32k in their offset account, and spend their $2k as needed.
If $32k in Rudi’s offset account could be too much of a spending temptation, they could transfer $20k to their loan so it seems less easy to access.
If Rudi has a basic loan (no offset account) they could park their spare $30k in their loan. As their $2k/month pay is in a regular transaction account, it won't reduce their interest costs, so Rudi could move the $2k into their savings account.

How do I set up an offset account?

Chat with a home loan expert on 1300 304 660 8am-8pm, Mon-Sat (AEST), call via the app, book a callback or visit a branch to:

Link multiple offset accounts to your home loan
Identify which offset account is linked to your loan.

If you’re on Principal & Interest home loan repayments, you’ll get a ‘Full Mortgage Equaliser Offset’ account. If you’re on Interest Only home loan repayments, you’ll get a ‘Full Repayment Offset’ account.

Important information

Conditions, credit criteria, fees and charges apply. Based on BankSA’s credit criteria, residential lending is not available for Non-Australian resident borrowers. Interest rates subject to change. Before making a decision, it’s best to read the terms and conditions.

Loan Accounts – Charges for specific services and accounts (PDF 55KB)

This information is general in nature and has been prepared without taking your objectives, needs and overall financial situation into account. For this reason, you should consider the appropriateness of the information to your own circumstances and, if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice.

Comparison Rate: The comparison rate is based on a loan of $150,000 over a term of 25 years. WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the example given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate.

^#Advantage Package: Terms & Conditions (PDF 601KB) apply. A $395 annual package fee applies and is payable from an eligible BankSA transaction account. Before deciding to acquire a BankSA transaction account, read the terms & conditions, and consider if the product is right for you.

⁺⁺Offset Calculator:

This is an estimate of the potential offset savings based on the information provided: your actual savings may differ depending on your situation. Changes in interest rate will affect the calculation. Our lending criteria, and basis upon which we assess what you can afford, may also change at any time without notice.

The output or result of this calculator:

Is subject to the assumptions, which are subject to change.
Is prepared without knowing your personal financial circumstances. Before you act on the output of the calculators, please consider if it’s right for you: we recommend that you consult your financial adviser before taking out a loan. If you need more info, please call 13 13 76.
Doesn’t represent either a quote, pre-qualification for a loan or an offer of credit.
Doesn’t include all applicable fees.
May not be taken into account if you apply for a loan with us, as we’ll make our own calculations. When assessing ability to service a loan, BankSA may use an interest rate that is higher than the current interest rate for the loan requested.

The interest rates used in the calculator:

Are current, as indicated on our home loan interest rate pages
Are BankSA's standard interest rates and include any package or promotional discounts
Are subject to change.

This mortgage offset calculator offers an estimate of the interest and time you could save by having money in your BankSA offset account, and is based on the info you’ve entered.

Calculator assumptions

Interest rate. This calculator doesn’t take into account compound interest savings.
Interest and loan term savings. This calculator compares a home loan without an offset account, to a loan linked with an offset account. Total Interest Saved = (Total interest paid on loan without offset) - (Total interest paid on loan with offset).
Extra repayments. Calculator is based on your offset account balance, and doesn’t take into account any extra mortgage repayments you might make to your home loan account.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayments. Your initial loan will be set up as monthly. Weekly and fortnightly repayments are only available with P&I. To calculate these, we multiply your P&I monthly amount by 12 to get a yearly value, then divide either by 26 for fortnightly or 52 for weekly, and round it up.

1. To be eligible for a Visa Debit Card, you must have an Australian residential address and be 14 years old or over.

³Redraw facility: if you have 'available funds' (you’re ahead on your home loan repayments) and you’ve activated your redraw facility, you’re free to redraw them with no redraw fee. Up to $100k will be available to redraw from your variable loan online or over the phone each day (in-branch it’s $30k). For fixed loans you can redraw up to your prepayment threshold during your fixed term. Read our Home Loan Redraw Form (PDF 1007KB) for full details.

Mortgage offset accounts