by Jenny Ruth
WestpacTrust took Good Returns' review of the major banks' home loan calculators published in mid-January seriously.
So seriously that the bank has altered its calculators to eliminate those features which I disliked and the changes are set to go live on Monday night.
I had said the WestpacTrust "can I afford it" calculator was somewhat annoying because it automatically reduces the loan term to the least period you can afford, no what variables one puts in it. All the other sites allow you to decide the length of the term yourself.
Henry Davies, the bank's manager of internet business, explains the calculator was set up that way because showing people how quickly they can pay off their mortgages is a feature of WestpacTrust's marketing strategy. Nevertheless, he saw why that would be annoying.
The altered calculator will allow people to decide their own term. If your term is too short to suit the amount you want to borrow, your income and other details, the calculator will tell you, yes, you can afford the loan but you will need to borrow over a longer term.
If the term you choose is longer than the minimum you can afford, the calculator will still give you the answer you're looking for. But then it will ask, "Why not pay off your loan sooner?" thus still satisfying the bank 's marketing strategy.
I had also said the WestpacTrust calculators appeared to be overly optimistic, at least based on New Zealand's recent financial history, because they assumed an average 7% mortgage interest rate.
From Monday, the calculators allow you to choose an interest rate and will also allow you to quickly check WestpacTrust's current rates.
The bank is retaining features I liked, including its ``how much house would my rent get'' calculator and the one which allows you to mix fixed-rate and floating rate parts of the same loan. (WestpacTrust also has a capped rate option where your interest rate can fall if wholesale rates fall but can't rise, no matter what wholesale rates do.)
Along the way, the bank has also improved the layout to make the calculators more user-friendly.
Davies says making the changes didn't take that long, it was the testing that was more tedious.
It's the bank's policy to make its web site available to as many people as possible, even those with rather aged computers. It doesn't use Java script, for example. And before the changes could go ahead they had to be tested on every different type of operating system and through all the various internet service providers.
Davies says usage of both the calculators
and WestpacTrust's web site is climbing at exponential rates with
near to 40,000 customers each week day now accessing the secure
parts of the site ie actual bank customers, not just casual visitors
like me.
Earlier Story: Mortgage Calculators road-tested
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