How do I make and change my home loan repayments?

Increasing your repayment amount is a way to help you reduce your home loan interest and pay off your loan faster.

If you’ve set up your repayments yourself, you can increase the amount through the Bankwest App or online banking. If you have direct debits set up with us, give us a call.

You can make unlimited extra repayments on our variable rate home loans. With our fixed rate loans, you can make extra repayments of up to $10,000 a year.

If you’ve built up a surplus on your loan by making extra repayments, you could choose to reduce your repayments. Keep in mind that you’ll be paying more home loan interest than what you’re currently paying, and that your home loan contract has a minimum monthly repayment amount to ensure you repay your loan by the end of the loan term.

Reducing your repayments to anything down to your minimum monthly repayment amount won’t affect your surplus.

If you decide to decrease your repayments below your minimum monthly repayment amount, you’ll be reducing the surplus you’ve built up on your loan. It's also important to be cautious, as once your surplus is used up, you’ll need to increase your repayments to the minimum monthly repayment amount so you don’t fall behind on your repayments.

You can manually change your scheduled payments in the Bankwest App or online banking. If you have direct debits set up with us, give us a call.

If you’re paying principal and interest, you can change your repayment frequency to weekly, fortnightly or monthly to suit your pay cycle. Note that if you have an interest only loan, you can only make monthly repayments.

You can change the frequency in the Bankwest App or online banking if you’ve set up scheduled payments yourself – take a look at our guide to scheduling your repeating home loan repayments. Have direct debits set up with us? Give us a call to change the frequency.

No matter how frequently you make repayments, you'll need to make sure that you're still repaying at least the amount you have to each month to meet the terms of your home loan contract (the minimum monthly repayment amount).

If you have an interest only loan (and you’re not currently in the building phase of a construction loan) and you want to switch to principal and interest repayments before the end of your interest only period, get in touch with a Home Lending Specialist. Because principal and interest repayments pay down both the loan amount and the interest, this repayment type can help you pay your loan down faster – see some reasons to pay principal and interest.

Keep in mind though that your minimum monthly repayment will be higher compared with interest only. Fees and charges may also apply, such as break fees if you break your fixed rate loan during the fixed rate period.

If you’re reaching the end of your interest only period, we’ll notify you to let you know what your new repayments will be and about any adjustments you might need to make.

With an interest only loan, you only make repayments on the interest amount for a set period of time – usually one to five years. These smaller repayments could help free up your cash flow for a bit, or have potential tax and gearing benefits if you’re a property investor.

However, there are things to consider before switching to an interest only loan. These include the fact that you’ll end up paying more interest over the life of the loan, the interest only rate may be higher than what you’re currently on, and your repayments will be higher when the interest only period ends. Fees and charges may also apply, including break costs on a fixed rate loan.

Take a look at some things to consider about an interest only loan. It’s a good idea to get independent financial advice too.

If your repayment amount needs to change, we’ll send you a new Account Position Statement to let you know. Refer to that Account Position Statement for more information about what you need to do, and read our FAQ – what happens if there’s an interest rate change?