by Jenny Ruth
While the BNZ survey canvasses customers’ reception of a number of different aspects of home loans, it is also trying to gauge their reaction to the idea of being rewarded for loyalty through a reducing interest rate over the life of a loan.
Superbank recently launched its home loans offer with a key element being its built-in reward system for existing customers, progressively lowering the interest rate the longer the customer stays with it.
"Each year we do an annual review of our product suite to make sure that we’ve got the pulse of our customers right," Chan says. The survey explores nine different ideas.
Chan admits BNZ’s timing could be seen as unfortunate – Superbank launched its home loans in mid-July while BNZ began surveying customers in late July and early August. But the questionnaire was much longer in the making than that. "Research like this takes quite a while to get to market," Chan says.
BNZ has a record of innovation in the home loans market including its tailored home loan and linking home loans to the FlyBuys and AirPoints schemes, he says.
Its questionnaire asks customers’ views on reducing interest rates for each year the loan is held of varying amounts up to 0.2 percentage points a year and up to maximum 0.6 percentage points.
The survey is also testing views of various different loans with a range of rewards for loyalty including varying numbers of Flybuys or AirPoints for each $1,000 borrowed and varying levels of lump sum payments up to $500 for re-fixing their fixed rate loan when the term expires.
The bank is also testing whether customers would regard such rewards as fair compensation for a higher interest rate or whether they would still want a lower interest rate.
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