With this year nearing its conclusion, a new year with fresh financial opportunities is knocking on your door. It’s the perfect time to review your debts and financial decisions this year to prepare for the next.
With regard to real estate, one major financial item on your agenda would be your housing loan or mortgage.
So to plan ahead and set aside funds for the coming year, it’s advisable that you check your housing loan statement of account or mortgage statement.
However, this intelligent approach will inevitably lead you to one riddle – how to check housing loan balance?
In this guide, you’ll learn how to check the HDB statement of account for housing loans, and how to check outstanding housing loan statements for HDB and bank loans.
In addition, we will tell you how to review your bank mortgage annual statement.
How To Check A HDB Statement Of Account For Your Housing Loan
Simply put, a statement of account displays your HDB housing loan transactions. It also shows your loan balance for the previous year.
The easiest way to check your HDB housing loan account statement is to visit the My HDB Page. Here, you can check the current and previous year’s statements.
To log in to the page and check your statement, you must have Singpass.
You can log in to the My HDB Page in a couple of ways. Firstly, you can scan the QR code via the Singpass app.
But if the first method doesn’t work, you can simply enter your password to log in.
If you’re wondering how to check housing loan balance of HDB loans in the form of past statements, you need to submit an online request to the page mentioned above.
Note: You have to pay an administrative fee of $15 for every request, and the statement(s) will be delivered to your doorstep within 15 working days.
How To Check Your Outstanding Housing Loan Statement
That said, the answer to “how to check housing loan balance” may not be as simple as stated above. It also depends on the kind of loan you’re talking about.
Below are the steps to check your outstanding housing loan statement based on the type of loan you have.
HDB Loans
There are a couple of ways to check your outstanding HDB housing loan.
- Once you log in to the My HDB Page with your Singpass, click on the ‘My Flat’ section. Then, click on ‘Purchased Flat’ followed by ‘Financial Info’.
- You can visit the HDB branch in charge of managing your flat. Also, it’s noteworthy that visiting HDB offices is fruitful only if you book an appointment in advance.
Note: The Singapore government has simplified booking appointments for services at HDB offices by introducing the e-Appointment system.
Bank Loans
For most bank loans, you can check the outstanding housing loan statement by navigating to the bank’s website or app.
Subsequently, look for the ‘My Accounts’ tab, hover on it, and click on ‘Mortgage Loan Account’.
A page containing your total outstanding loan balance and other details such as your property address, monthly installment amount, due date, outstanding balance, and undisbursed loan amount will appear.
Albeit rarely, a few banks may not have an app. If so, you can head to the ‘Help and Support’ section on the bank’s website or visit its branch.
Many licensed money lenders in Singapore, such as CreditMaster, offer live chat support and excellent customer service to assist you with retrieving and reviewing statements.
How To Read Your Mortgage Statement
Once you’ve retrieved your HDB housing loan statement of account or bank mortgage statement, looking at a screen full of alien terms could be overwhelming at first.
You can simplify reading your bank mortgage statement by breaking it down into two parts.
Housing Loan Account Balance
The most vital information on the mortgage loan account balance page is the outstanding balance. This equates to the portion of the loan’s principal amount you’ve not paid yet.
If you have a few late repayments, they will be visible in the ‘Outstanding Installment’ section. Late payment charges will also be displayed under this section.
Note: In an ideal situation, the ‘Outstanding Installment’ tab should be empty because, although HDB loans are lenient, you shouldn’t fall into the habit of making late repayments to avoid paying unnecessary fees.
Apart from letting you know about your outstanding balance, the mortgage loan account balance page also consists of an interest calculator.
It also includes an option that allows you to prepay your loan, which is under ‘Partial Capital Repayment’. On the other hand, the ‘Redemption of Housing Loan’ tab lets you repay the housing loan completely.
Upon opening the detailed statement of account of your mortgage loan, you will see all the transactions that have taken place since the beginning of the loan tenure.
To properly understand this page’s elements, familiarise yourself with the following terms:
Balance Brought Forward (Bal-BF)
Bal-BF is the loan amount you have yet to repay at the beginning of the period you requested a statement. HDB or your bank will charge interest on this amount and deduct it from your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) to repay the loan.
This refers to the interest levied on the outstanding loan balance by the bank or HDB. Usually, it’s mentioned in the form of ‘IP-2.60’, where IP stands for interest and 2.6 is the rate of interest charged on the loan.
The rate of interest code can change depending on the bank you’ve borrowed the money from.
But it’s fixed at 2.6% for HDB loans.
Interest on HDB loans can be calculated by estimating the outstanding loan balance monthly and charging one-twelfth of the annual interest rate (i.e. 0.22%) on it.
As a result, the interest charged will also decrease when your outstanding loan balance decreases each month.
You can cut down the interest charged further by prepaying a portion of the loan amount with cash.
Note that this prepayment will be shown as a transaction with a unique code based on how you transfer the money.
Monthly Installment Repayment
Apart from the interest charge, the most fundamental part of any bank mortgage statement is the ‘Monthly Installment Repayment’ section. The code for these transactions varies depending on the mode of transaction.
Reviewing Your Bank Mortgage Annual Statement
Reviewing your bank mortgage annual statements can help you figure out the amount you’re paying as interest every month.
More importantly, it allows you to plan and estimate how much of your money will go towards repaying the loan in the coming year.
Looking from the perspective of a person in debt, it’ll allow you to remember how much you owe and help you make financial decisions accordingly.
Also, reviewing your annual mortgage statement can help you realise whether you could be getting a better mortgage deal somewhere else. Consequently, you could decrease the interest you pay and save money.
In other words, it’s crucial to review your mortgage statement regularly as it may just be the right time for you to refinance.
However, refinancing isn’t always the answer. It could be a not-so-wise idea, depending on your personal circumstances. For instance, refinancing your housing loan will not make sense if you’re planning to sell your property in the next few years.
In any case, regularly reviewing your bank mortgage statement is a smart practice.
If you feel you could use guidance for checking your bank mortgage statement, feel free to reach out to CreditMaster to learn how to manage your housing loan better.
How Long Do Banks Keep Records Of Mortgage Statements?
If you never figured out how to check housing loan balance and read mortgage statements, you might feel that it’s too late for you to start (it’s not).
On the other hand, a few of you might wonder if you’ll be able to retrieve statements from a few years ago.
Fortunately, Singapore law dictates that banks are supposed to keep records of bank statements for a minimum of two years.
A few banks choose to store these records for longer, but are likely to charge an administrative fee for letting you access them.
Always Check Your Housing Loan Balance
Reading and reviewing your mortgage statement enables you to keep tabs on your cashflow. It allows you to figure out how much money is coming into your account and how much is leaving it.
This practice can help you build a budget, save and achieve other financial goals without disrupting the loan repayment process.
Apart from the above-mentioned benefit, reviewing your housing loan account statements can help you catch errors in any transactions or unnecessary deductions.
For example, maybe a deduction, which was supposed to occur only once, occurred twice. Or perhaps you missed out on a repayment deadline because you thought it was set on autopay.
So if you don’t review your statements, you risk losing money. Moreover, you might have to run to the bank to solve an issue you could have settled remotely.
Need help or advice on your housing loan?
Get in touch with CreditMaster now or apply for a loan with us using your Singpass today. It just takes five minutes.
