looking for home loan for my RM300k DSL in BM, Penang...
stumble upon this ING site with fixed home loan rate at 4.84 and 4.99 over the entire loan period
is it a good deal or what do u think of it...
pls comment..
thank u

That's a good deal anyway..mine was BLR-2.3 (for 3 years) and BLR-2.4 (for remaining years)..
That offer is from OCBC, but dunno whether they still have this promotion or not..

You might want to ask about how much insurance they want to you buy..
If you want not insured at the moment, then it's fine...
If you already insured, do check if you are over insured or not if you want to take up the extra insurance.

Hi aslahuddin, your OCBC loan is full-flexi or semi-flexi?

the BLR is unlikely to to up....
even if it does go up also not very much....
by fixing your rate to lost the flexibility to fluctuate along with the real situation....
for myself, i wont take up this plan....

i am quite confuse also...
the BLR is at its lowest point now, majority banks now offer BLR-1.8-1.9...
so it's around 3.7%...
if it does go up 1.5%, it'll be 5.2 already..

ING has very rigid policies in terms of life insurance. You have no choice but to take up their policies in conjuction with your home loan application. I do not like this inflexibility.

Secondly, their homeloans are not full flexi. I cannot deposit and withdraw excess funds at my full convenience.

i think mine is full-flexi..

if you plan to hold the property just less than or around five year, this may not seem a good deal. but in the long run, it will benefit you when BLR goes above 4.99+2.2 = 7.1

hi aslahuddin,

r u currently serving your loan? do you need to write letter to OCBC if want to withdraw money from the account in case of emergency? or you can withdraw anytime as you like without informing them?

wow.. you are indeed getting a very good offer.

most uncompleted property get BLR-2.2 and completed property BLR-1.8.

How do you manage to get the package?

It should be non-ZMC right?

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Added on December 31, 2009, 8:29 pmOCBC.. very interested...

This post has been edited by epalbee3: Dec 31 2009, 08:29 PM

I almost sign the contract today for the fix rate, according t one of the book . If we are looking for own stay/Rented then fix rate is good !! ???
If purely investment better get a BLR -X....and lesser lock in period..

Anyhow this ING one got lockin period but early settlement is w/o penanty i wonder how can it possible since both condition is conflict each other..

can anyone please share why is fix rate good for own stay and BLR -X is better for investment? sorry newbie here

Fixed rate keep you free from worry about the BLR as it may fluctuate. It also give you a fixed figure about your installment so that you can have your financial planning more easy. It also can guarantee your loan can be settle in the fixed time when you taken up the loan because the interest and installment is fixed.

For long term and those ppl hate(maybe) go to bank often or monitor their loan loan status or balance, fixed rate is one of the good choice. Just take the fixed rate loan and pay the fixed amount of installment for 30years then get your house confirm. No need to worry economic down or up.

But if you think you might refinance in future or before the loan settle, or sell off the property before you settle the loan, then fixed rate loan might not be a good option to you. As you can calculate, if you take fixed rate loan, your interest rate will be 1.X% higher compare to BLR base loan. For a RM300k @ 30years loan, you already paid extra about RM3k+ each year for the first 10+years. (compare using current rate, i dunno future BLR rate, so can't comment or compare)

And also, fixed rate loan didn't offer the flexibility like flexi loan that can help save the loan interest by a lot if you know how to utilize flexi loan.
This is one of the main reason why BLR base loan so attractive.

And those fixed rate loan offer by insurance company will compulsory you to take up their insurance plan if you want to get their fixed rate loan. If you intend to get one, then it's not a problem. But for some people who not interested for extra protection or insurance, why pay more for something they don't need?

So pros and cons, which so you prefer? it's totally up to you.

This post has been edited by onnying88: Jan 1 2010, 11:41 PM

very good info thx

thanks onnying88 for the patience to explain, can you please elaborate more on the above line?

if you have lots of cash, let's say equal or more than the amount you borrowed and dump into the account, you will not pay a cent as interest, so basically, BLR or not is out of equation already..
As this loan type, the interest is calculated on daily basis, you can always put in some money even for a day/week to save some interest charge..

The likelihood of BLR going down is high.

i see, understood. but that is an extreme case, if lets say i have extra 50k, it's it better to put it in to save interest or use the 50k to invest in somewhere else?

jasonhanjk, mind to justify your statement?

don't just look at the rate.. look at the entire carrying cost. rates don't tell you everything..

besides, a higher rate don't necessarily means it's a bad deal.. you're paying more and you'll end up paying faster on your capital as well..

the banks don't take 100% of your monthly housing installment as their profit.. (they have something called 'profit ratio').. a higher blr can also mean, faster repayment of your housing loan (provided you have the sufficient cashflow to meet that payment)

when insurance companies offer housing loan.. it's tricky.. i like to think that they're basically going to securitize your mortgage and at the same time cross-selling their expensive insurance plan to you as compulsory..

so, look at your carrying cost! not just the superficial blr rate..