Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) yesterday launched a mortgage plan for double-income couples, allowing them to deduct the balances of their separate saving accounts from the sum used to calculate interest.
“The more a couple saves, the lower their interest payments,” company vice president Michelle Yu (余苑菱) said.
For example, if a couple with a NT$6 million (US$185,000) mortgage has a total of NT$1 million in their saving accounts, they will only be charged daily interest for NT$5 million, the bank said.
Compared to rivals that offer similar options, Yu said the bank’s plan allows a couple to keep their financial independence by having two separate saving accounts instead of one.
“Although [the plan has] a higher nominal [mortgage] rate, the real interest rate can be the lowest [among all lenders], depending on the total balance of a couple’s savings accounts,” Jeanie Ho (何金妮), a vice president of the bank’s mortgage marketing department, told a media briefing.
The bank’s nominal rates average around 2 percent, slightly higher than the market average of 1.8 percent, she said.
For a 20-year NT$6 million mortgage, borrowers could save NT$748,222 if the couple deposits NT$27,000 each month into each of their accounts, with a balance of NT$400,000, translating into a real interest rate of 0.66 percent, the bank said.
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