St.George Bank launches free iPhone app for home buyers

Calculating home loan finances just got a whole lot easier for house hunters as St.George Bank today released its Home Loan Calculator App for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The application, the first of its kind to be released by an Australian bank, allows users to calculate how much they can borrow and what their monthly home loan repayments will be, but also in which suburbs they can afford to buy based on median house and unit prices of suburbs across Australia.
The property data included in this app has been provided by Infochoice to St.George Bank exclusively.
Travis Tyler, St.George Banks Head of eDistribution and Internet said, “The St.George Home Loan Calculator App is very easy to use and also provides potential home buyers with the information they need right at their fingertips, where and when they need it the most.
“With this app, users can work out their borrowing power and repayments on their dream home while at an auction or inspection, find suburbs where they can afford to buy and even ask for a St.George lending expert to contact them at a specific time with more information. Whats more, calculating your potential borrowing power and loan repayments doesnt even require an internet connection,” Mr Tyler said.
The apps release comes as the popularity of iPhone banking continues to increase, with more than 60,000 individual customers using St.George Banks mobile banking service since it launched on iPhone and iPod Touch devices in March this year.
Figures released today show customers have logged on to St.Georges mobile banking service more than 750,000 times since the Bank introduced mobile banking nine months ago. These customers have used their iPhone to make more than 240,000 transactions.
Mr Tyler said that in addition to checking their account balance and transferring funds, customers have even begun to use their iPhone to apply for new savings accounts or credit cards.
“Weve had a fantastic response to the launch of our mobile banking service. The number of customers using mobile banking is increasing by more than 20 per cent each month and we are increasingly seeing customers use their iPhone for more of their banking needs,” Mr Tyler said.
The St.George Home Loan Calculator App is now available to download for free from Apples iTunes or iPhone App store.
St.George Bank Home Loan Calculator features:
No internet connection required to calculate borrowing power and loan repayments
App users can also use the app to request a St.George Bank lending expert call them at their preferred time, or simply call to speak directly with a St.George Bank lending expert
Based on their borrowing power, app users can search the median house prices of suburbs across Australia, or they can enter a loan amount to find out where they can afford to buy
The borrowing power calculator displays the current St.George basic home loan variable interest rate. App users can check for interest rate updates and download the current rate at any time
This application is compatible with iPod Touch and iPhone devices running iPhone OS v3.0 and includes enhanced functionality for iPhone OS v3.1 and above.