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Heartland Home Loan FAQs

Click below to see the answers to some of our frequently asked questions.

If you're not finding the information you need, get in touch with us.

Eligibility

No, at this stage we are only lending to owner-occupiers.
No, at this stage we are only lending up to 80% of the value of a property which includes any undrawn revolving credit.
No, at this stage we are only offering Heartland Home Loans for existing homes.
No, at this stage we are only offering Heartland Home Loans to joint or individual personal applicants.

For you to be eligible for a Heartland Home Loan you also need your income paid into a YouChoose Account, unless you have a Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan (in which case income needs to be paid directly into that account). A YouChoose account is a transactional account with unlimited transactions and no set-up or monthly fees. If you don’t have a YouChoose account we can help you open one during the application process.

You can also use your YouChoose account for everyday banking. It’s designed so you can manage your money the way you choose. There are no setup or monthly fees and we will supply you with an EFTPOS card. Click here for more information on our YouChoose account.

Heartland Home Loans

A home loan, or mortgage, is a loan to you by a financial institution to allow you to purchase a property. In return, they hold security over the property. Home loans have terms that could range up to 30 years and usually include regular, scheduled repayments

You can choose to either take the loan out at a fixed or floating interest rate, or a combination of both. If you choose a fixed rate, at the end of your fixed rate term, the loan will revert to our floating rate. You can choose to renegotiate a further fixed term at the rates applicable at the time. Floating rates are variable, which means they can change at any time.

Heartland Home Loans offer fixed rates for either one, two or three years. This means that the interest rate you will pay on your loan is set for the selected period. The benefit of fixed interest rate periods is that you will have set repayment amounts during that period. The disadvantage is that if the interest rate drops, you will continue to be locked in at this rate for the remainder of your fixed rate period. If you wish to repay your loan or make changes to your scheduled repayment amounts during a fixed rate period, you may be charged a fee. If you wish to do this, please get in touch to find out what fees and other amounts may be payable.

A floating rate means that the interest rate will rise and fall in line with market conditions over the period of your loan. The benefit of this is the flexibility to make extra payments without cost. Remember: a floating interest rate may rise or fall depending on market conditions which may increase or decrease your repayment amounts.
Yes, we do. Learn more about Heartland’s Revolving Credit Home Loan.

The length of time (in other words, the “term” of the loan) you give yourself to pay off your loan will impact how much you pay. Having your loan over a longer term will give you more time to pay it off, but you could end up paying more in interest. If you can afford to pay more, it is best to have it over a shorter time frame.

Also, you need to ensure you are suitably placed to pay your loan for the term length you select. If you are planning to retire during the term of your loan, you will need to be able to either continue to make repayments or have funds available to repay your loan in full.
  • Freehold, also known as fee simple, means you own the land and (generally) anything built on the land.
  • A cross lease means you own a share of the freehold title in common with the other cross leaseholders, as well as a leasehold interest in the particular area/building you occupy.
  • Unit title ownership (common for apartments and townhouses) means you own your particular apartment or unit and any accessory units (garages, car parks etc.) and an undivided share of the ownership of the common property (for instance, lifts or driveways).
To find out more about these different types of ownership, see this page.

Application process

No, we have designed the application process for Heartland Home Loans to be a simple, online process that you can complete yourself.Once you have completed the application process and received an online approval, we’ll then be in touch via email or telephone to verify your information, conduct any further checks required and confirm the loan structure to ensure it meets your needs. If you have any further questions, you can contact us.
Yes, you can have both fixed and floating interest rates with a Heartland Home Loan. You can decide to split your loan across multiple options of fixed and floating rates. In other words, you can split your loan into smaller portions that have different interest rates (i.e. a floating interest rate or fixed interest rate). This means that you could take advantage of payment certainty with a fixed interest rate portion of your loan while giving yourself the ability to make lump sum payments on another portion with a variable interest rate. You may also choose to establish a Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan and use some or all of the approved limit to pay for part of your purchase or refinance. As part of the process we will communicate with you about how you want your loan structured.

We're offering a $750 credit for new home loan customers who refinance more than $100,000 with Heartland at our floating interest rate (not including a revolving credit home loan) for 12 months or more. If you borrow more than $500,000 you could be eligible for up to $1,500. At the time of drawdown, we'll transfer the credit into your YouChoose account (which we'll take you through setting up). If you refinance your loan to another lender or move your loan to a fixed interest rate with us before 12 months is up, you'll need to repay the full amount of this credit to us.
Online approval means it looks like you meet our lending criteria based on the information you entered online. Before we can release funding, we need to verify what you have told us with your supporting documentation, conduct any further checks, and confirm the loan structure with you to ensure it meets your needs. Any final approval will be subject to Heartland’s lending criteria, terms and conditions.
If you are purchasing your first home, you may be able to withdraw almost all of your KiwiSaver investment to help. For more information, please contact your KiwiSaver provider.
If you’re in KiwiSaver and have been contributing to a scheme for at least three years, you may be eligible for a First Home Grant. This means that the government could give you up to $5,000 towards an older, existing home, or up to $10,000 towards a newly built home or land to build a new home on. If borrowing with someone else, you can combine your grants, which means you could receive up to $20,000 if both of you have been contributing to KiwiSaver for at least five years. There are other eligibility criteria to meet, as well as regional house price caps. For more information, click here.

Revolving Credit

No – in order to be eligible for a Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan, you need to have at least $100,000 on a term home loan with Heartland.
No – the credit refinancers can get if they have $100,000 or more on our floating rate for 12 months or more is not valid for a Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan, only for our floating term loan rate

The maximum account limit Heartland offers is $100,000, and the minimum is $5,000 – the revolving credit limit cannot make up more than 50% of the finance secured against your property. You can let us know the limit that you would like for your revolving credit account, and we’ll let you know based on your other loan details how much we can offer you.

Unlike some other revolving credit products, your limit will not reduce over time, meaning you can draw up to that limit until the term is over and the full amount becomes repayable, or until we inform you otherwise.

Depending on how you choose to split up your mortgage, you could draw down a portion of your account limit to pay for your home purchase or mortgage refinance – if you choose this option, we will draw down these funds for you at settlement.

Before we finalise your loan settlement, you’ll also be informed of your account limit and details and sent an EFTPOS card. You can then set up auto-payments for regular expenses to come directly out of the account, and then use the EFTPOS card to make purchases in person or over the internet with Online EFTPOS providers.

Please note, the EFTPOS card daily transaction limits are $1,500 for ATM withdrawals and $3,000 for EFTPOS transactions. If outside of Heartland’s business hours, a $500 limit will apply. Customers will be setup with a $5,000 daily payment limit from the Heartland Mobile App – however, higher or lower limits are available on request.

Payments to other banks made before 7pm Monday to Friday are processed that night, otherwise the next business night. Payments and transfers between Heartland accounts are processed immediately.
We require our Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan customers to have their income paid directly into the account – this helps keep the interest costs as low as possible. You can make further repayments at any time by transferring funds to your revolving credit account within the Heartland Mobile App.
Any amount that you’ve borrowed from your revolving credit account will also need to be repaid on the same date that your term loan matures, unless specified otherwise under your loan agreement. For example, if you take out a 20-year term loan, any additional funds you’ve drawn down from your revolving credit account will generally also fall due at the same time. Bear in mind that any future variations to your term lending with us may change this, and that there may also be exceptions to this general rule.
Email [email protected] and we’ll work with you to see if you’re eligible.
Yes. You’re also welcome to get in touch with Heartland to request a reduction of your account limit or that we convert it to a term loan with regular repayments. If you exceed your limit, we will contact you to discuss next steps, which may include converting some or all of your lending to a more suitable structure.

Repayments

Yes, you can pay your loan back early by paying the full prepayment amount. If you have a Heartland Revolving Credit Home Loan, you can pay off and re-draw the account at any time at no cost.

You can also repay some of your loan at any time. However, any part prepayment must not be less than any minimum prepayment amount we specify in the loan agreement (currently being $100 for a floating interest rate or $1,000 for a fixed rate loan portion). We may also charge you an administrative fee and, if a loan portion with a fixed rate is being repaid, an amount equal to the reasonable estimate of our loss arising from the part prepayment (if any).

If you want to do this, please contact us so that we can check what fees and other amounts may be payable.
We understand that circumstances out of your control may impact your ability to make your repayments. This could include illness, injury, loss of employment, the end of a relationship, or other reasonable cause. In any of these cases, you can apply for a Hardship Variation. You can find out more and apply here.
There are serious consequences if you do not meet your loan commitments. Under the loan agreement, you agree to pay all amounts owed to us now and in the future. If you are unable to make your repayments, we may sell the property and use the proceeds to repay any amounts owing. If this does not cover the amount owing, you will still owe us the outstanding amount.