What is Loyalty Tax? And how you can avoid paying it

3 min read | 2 Feb 2021

When you are in a happy relationship or marriage, it’s normal to celebrate with valuable anniversary gifts as the years pass. You know, to acknowledge your love and loyalty and the good times.

At Athena, we feel the same way about our customers. And yet, other lenders are all about only giving the shiny, sexy offers to the new customers, while their loyal long term customers sit by and watch their home loan rates slowly creep up. Totes unfair!

Being penalised for being loyal, existing customers sit, under-appreciated, on the back books of greedy lenders, who use their giant mortgage books to drive profits and fund less profitable operations (like those shiny honeymoon rates the new customers are getting.)

For the most part, customers get pretty pissed off, and then have to go to the hassle of finding a new lender, which costs them money that could take a few months to recoup, spend a little time being loved by their new lender in the front book, before they are banished to the back books again.

Aussies tend to refinance their home loans every four to five years on average. Aside from reasons such as change of circumstances, like having a new baby, most are motivated to find a better rate.

This woeful state of affairs is often driven by financial gain for banks and lenders. For them, even moving back book loans up a few basis points, makes a massive impact on their revenue and profit.

If you’re languishing on the neglected and inflated rates in the backwaters of the back books, you could approach your lender and ask for a better rate that matches any new offers they have, or else you could find a lender who will value you, and not play favourites.

In most cases you will have to pay fees to refinance, so the savings over the short term need to be bigger than the upfront fees you will be charged to switch.

We promise you will always have the same rates (for a like-for-like product) as our new customers, and we will automatically adjust your rate to match the shiny bling rates the new borrowers are getting, as soon as it is offered.

Sounds logical and straightforward, but it’s an Australian first! We promise existing customers will never be worse off than new customers.

We also won’t charge you any fees to refinance. In other words, by switching to Athena, you will see the savings immediately. We will have to pass on some third-party fees where applicable, but we won’t charge you any Athena fees to refinance, nor for the term of your loan with us. And, we wont charge you anything to exit! Don’t love us, then leave us – for free.

The whole process can be quickly and easily managed online using our innovative online platform, and we offer one of the lowest rates in the market, so you can rest assured you are getting a great deal from the outset.

Our home loan experts are available seven days a week to advise you and help you through the process. Loving our loyal customers is part of our DNA, so isn’t it time you stopped paying loyalty tax and felt loved instead?