Kiwibank removes and reduces many home loan fees

Kiwibank has quietly made a whole raft of changes to its home loan fees including the removal totally of 10 fees.

Wednesday, June 17th 2015, 11:00AM

Two of the biggest changes are that it has removed its monthly fee on its Offset product, which was previously charged at $10 a month. The two other banks who have Offset products, BNZ and Westpac, stlll charge a monthly fee of $10.

Kiwibank has also reduced its low equity fee from 1.25% of the total loan amount to 0.80*. It charges the fee on loans with an LVR of between 90% and 95%.

It has more than halved the lump sum repayment administration fees from $100 to $40.

Key fees to be removed are the bridging finance fee, which sat at $350 and also the rate fixing fee which was charged at $100.

A bank spokesman says Kiwibank has "completed a full review of our home loan fees and simplified when and how we charge them".

"During this process we have taken on board customer feedback about some of the fees we charge."

The new fees came into effect on June 11.

Fee type	Current Fee	New Fee
Bridging finance fee	$350	Nil
Mortgage priority change fee	$100	Nil
Multi-borrower fee	$100	Nil
Rate fixing fee	$100	Nil
Redocumentation fee	$100	Nil
Repayment holiday fee	$75	Nil
E-value fee	$50	Nil
Registration or discharge of caveat fee	$50	Nil
Copy of loan documents	$35	Nil
Offset monthly fee	$10 per month	Nil
Lump sum Repayment Administration Fee	$100	$40
Settlement statement fee	$50	$45
Discharge of security fee	$100	$75
Loan Restructure fee	$200	$175
Low equity fee *	1.25% if the loan amount	0.80% of the loan amount

* The low equity fee applies with loans where the LVR is more than 90% but less than or equal to 95% of the value of the property being provided as security.

Tags: Kiwibank