'How low can U go?' UBank asks its rivals

Bernard Kellerman
NAB's online banking division, UBank, has announced a new variable annual home loan rate of 4.54 per cent, equalling the offer from the firm that has been the pace-setter for cheap variable rates on the market, FirstMac's loans.com.au.

Banks and other mortgage providers have been dancing around, claiming lowest lender status, without success. Small broker Mortgage View is shown as offering an offset product for 4.52 per cent annually on comparison site ratecity.com.au.

This latest effort from NAB's captive online bank, then, is the closest any Big Four Bank has come to matching FirstMac's own online provider.

With what must be a sense of irony that couldn't have been lost at the self-proclaimed "break-up ban", UBank's new home loan rate has been proclaimed within a fortnight of NAB being caned by the ACCC for misleading advertising for leaving out the phrase "by any bank outside the Big Four banks" in a previous ad campaign for home loans.

Savings calculations are based on a loan of $300K over 30 years and the assumption that the monthly repayments type is principal and Interest for the entire loan term.