Rate cuts to save $128 a month off average SA home loan
MEREDITH BOOTH, SARAH MARTIN
ANZ and Westpac have each dropped their standard variable home loan rate by a full percentage point to 5.91 per cent in response to today's Reserve Bank decision.
The Reserve this afternoon slashed interest rates by one percentage point to 3.25 per cent - expected to save the typical SA household $154 a month in mortgage repayments.
The decision, made today at 2pm Adelaide time, would bring total monthly savings to more than $634 on a typical SA mortgage of $250,000 since the RBA first cut rates in September 2008 - if banks pass on the cut in full.
It is the fifth consecutive rate cut announced by the RBA, as the bank and the Federal Government scramble to protect the Australian economy from the worst of the recession-gripped global economy.
It also takes the official cash rate down to February 1964 levels when a comparable "cash rate" - or interest rate charged between banks for wholesale loans - was 3.18 per cent.
Banks are expected to pass on their savings on home loan products imminently.
Westpac and ANZ were the first banks to pass on full interest rate savings to their customers.
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