Westpac is the third major bank to increase its variable home loan rate by 0.25% in response to the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate hike.
The big bank’s move, late on Wednesday afternoon, follows NAB and CBA. NAB announced it was lifting its variable home loan interest rates by 0.25% on Tuesday, a few hours after the RBA lifted the OCR by 25 basis points. CBA announced a 25bp increase to its rates mid-afternoon on Wednesday.
Shortly before Westpac made its announcement, Macquarie Bank said it would also be lifting its variable home loan rate by 0.25% p.a effective November 16.
Read more: CBA the second big bank to lift interest rates
Westpac customers will pay an extra 0.25% on their home loan variable interest rates from November 15.
The bank will also lift its total variable rate with bonus interest by 0.90% to 3.50% and Westpac eSaver total variable rate by 0.95% to 3.50% for new customers for the first five months, both effective from November 9. Westpac customers will be able to access a new term deposit offer of 3.75% for 12 to 23 months effective November 4.
“Savers are continuing to benefit from a number of successive interest rate rises, helping them meet their financial goals,” said Westpac group chief executive, consumer & business banking Chris de Bruin (pictured above).
“Today we’ve announced we are increasing rates on some of our most popular products including Westpac Life and eSaver. We know that with the cost of living increasing, some customers are looking at their household budgets. To help them manage their money more easily we’ve recently rolled out new features in the Westpac app to provide customers with insights into their spending and the ability to track and categorise expenses.”
De Bruin said with interest rates continuing to rise, Westpac understood some people would be feeling more financial pressure.
“While we have not seen an increase in calls for assistance and the majority of our customers continue to be ahead on repayments, we are ready to support customers who may need extra help,” he said.
“When reviewing interest rates, Westpac considers both its borrowers and depositors, as well as other factors such as the cash rate, returns and market environment.”
Read more: NAB to lift variable mortgage rates
Macquarie Bank said as well as lifting variable home loan rates by 25bp, it would also increase some of its savings’ rates including:
Macquarie’s savings account welcome rate will increase 0.25% to 4.25% for new customers, for the first four months on balances up to $250,000 effective November 3.
The ongoing interest rate customers earn on both their savings and everyday transaction accounts will increase 0.25% to 3.45% on balances up to $250,000 effective November 16.
Macquarie has also increased a range of term deposit interest rates by 0.25% including three-month term deposits to 3.00%, six-month term deposits to 3.60% and nine month term deposits to 3.65% effective November 3. One year term deposits are available today at 4.10%.
