Saving on mortgage: Discounted interest rates date back to January.
So that the Portuguese can save on their housing loans, the Government has announced support measures for mortgage financing. One of them is the interest rate subsidy and it has now been announced that it will be retroactive to January. Let's see how this measure will work and what other options exist to save on your housing loan.
Save on your home loan? You're in the right place: Contact the credit intermediaries of Poupança no Minuto to find out about the options available and proceed with a process that is free, efficient, and personalized. But first, find out how you can access interest rate bonuses and what other solutions are available in the market.
Government specifies that interest bonus will have retroactive effect from January.
The Government has already stated that the new rules for interest rate bonuses on housing credit include retroactive to January: both the conditions to access the interest rate bonus and the amount of interest paid by the State.
The new rules were expressed in a decree-law, with the most significant being the expansion of support, giving access to more people. In addition, customers who had already accessed the interest bonus will now receive a higher amount.
According to News to the Minute publication, the Minister of Finance explained that "the new rules for interest subsidy date back to January 1, 2023. This means that the amounts due will be paid according to the new rules, from that time."
However, Fernando Medina mentioned that the protocol for the new rules to be implemented is still being reviewed with the banks, as stated in the news. It is still unclear which method will be used for retroactive payments since January.
How does subsidized interest support work?
Currently, the decree-law defines that the bonus be calculated for the value of the indexing above 3%, without being done through income brackets. Now, taxpayers up to the 6th income bracket of IRS (38,632 euros of annual taxable income) and assets below 62 times the Social Support Index - IAS (29,7 thousand euros in 2023) can have access to this measure.
The interest bonus above 3% is applied at 75% for borrower effort rates between 35% and 50%, and applied at 100% for effort rates above 50%.
The limit for the bonus value of the interest to be received also has a limit: before the maximum support value was 720 euros annually, and now it is 800 euros annually.
The Bank of Portugal has found that, in July of this year, there are 2 million customers with home credit (variable rate, fixed rate, or mixed rate). This year, the Government expects to include in the interest rate subsidy support 200 thousand credit contracts, with a cost of 200 million euros.
Other savings options in home credit
Since these measures may not cover your household, you can always access other more effective tools to reduce your monthly burden without sacrificing the postponement of interest to be paid later.
There are other options you can use to save on your housing credit this year. You can even join different options at the same time as the Government's support measures.
For example, the first step may be to go to your bank and say that you want a renegotiation of the terms of your contract. The bank may suggest a bonus on the spread in exchange for contracting new products associated with credit, such as a credit card.
You should also know that, if you have mortgage life insurance contracted with the bank's insurer, you can transfer it to a new insurance company and achieve significant savings. The bank may in this case penalize your spread, but do the math to see if it’s worth it compared to how much you can save by transferring the insurance. mortgage life insurance
And then, the option that the Portuguese resorted to the most in 2023, you can transfer your home loan to another bank. This allows you to change the interest rate regime of the loan, which, if you have a variable rate contracted indexed to the Euribor and suffering consecutive increases in value, can make a big difference. In other words, by fixing the rate, even if it is only for a period of two years, for example, it already guarantees a lower rate than the variable rate, and stable, as it is not subject to fluctuations.
If you want to join any of these options, count on the support of credit intermediaries and insurance mediators from Poupança no Minuto. We offer a free service, dealing with all the bureaucracy, communication with banks, presenting various proposals, and helping in the comparison and decision of the best conditions for you. Contact us and ensure a 2024 with greater savings!