With the number of home loan products available on the market, home buyers have access to more specialised features than ever. When exploring your home loan options, speak with your financial broker to find the features that best suit your personal situation.

Repayment holidays are a feature offered by many banks and lenders, including Westpac. The idea behind repayment holidays is that if you have built up funds in your home, you can take a break from loan repayments for a period of timeusually between three and six months. The extra money that you have built up in your home is used to cover the repayments over this time.

Having a break from making your regular repayments to westpac may sound like a chance to enjoy some extra cash, but look carefully into this option before you decide whether it is right for you.

For a start, you need to activate the repayment holiday feature if it is available with the type of Westpac home loan you have. Depending on your home loan type, a repayment holiday fee may apply if you take advantage of the feature.

Although a repayment holiday may sound like a financial breeze, bear in mind that you will still be charged interest on your Westpac home loan during the holiday period, which means you will owe even more money when you start to make regular repayments again.

To take a repayment holiday from your Westpac home loan, you need to have built up extra cash in your loan balance. So much extra that it is able to cover the number of repayments that you miss during the holiday period. If you have managed to make this amount in extra repayments towards clearing your debt, after careful consideration of your options, it may seem a waste to use it on a repayment holiday.

If you think you may have trouble meeting some of your future home loan repayments, or need to access some extra cash for a short period of time, speak with your financial broker as soon as possible. Other options, such as using a redraw facility, may be more suited to your situation and will not erode the extra repayments you have been able to make.