Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
Banks Read Your Power Bill, So Maybe Don’t Bounce It
•Zebunisso Alimova
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Missed payments aren’t always about low income; they’re often about bad timing. We dive into the practical steps that keep your credit score clean and your home loan humming, even when payroll runs late or a provider insists on debiting the 20th of every month. Drawing on real client stories, we show how a one-day buffer after payday, a dedicated bills account, and a simple budget can prevent bounced debits and protect your borrowing power.
We break down why modern credit reports are far more detailed than they were a decade ago and how banks use them to read your payment patterns through the lens of the Five Cs of credit. That means your power bill, phone plan, and insurance history can become silent referees when you’re refinancing or buying your next place. Instead of scrambling when a lender asks for three to six months of clean conduct, build that track record now with small, repeatable habits that create reliability on paper and in practice.
You’ll learn how to align weekly or fortnightly income with monthly bills through drip-feeding into a bills-only account, the advantages of joint accounts for shared households with mixed pay cycles, and when an offset account can quietly reduce the interest on your mortgage. We keep the system simple enough to maintain and strong enough to withstand real-life hiccups—from variable payrolls to inflexible direct debit dates—so you can feel confident your money will do the heavy lifting.
If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s planning a refinance, and leave a quick review so more Kiwis can build smarter payment systems. Got a question about your setup? Send it through and we’ll help you make your money work for you.
Hello and welcome back to that Home Lawn Hub. I am joined with Kunch. Hey Kunch. Good morning, Kioda. Kiola, you always make me laugh because every time I go, I'm
joined, and then I'm like, is it buy? Is it worth? What is it? Never know. All right, Kunch. What are we talking about today?
SPEAKER_00
Oh, well, I thought we'll cover off like what happens in preparation for your home loan. So the home loan's been pre-approved, and then you're setting up repayments, you're talking about structures and things like that. So I thought of about us talking about how to manage those payments, setting up accounts to pay what's involved in a home loan.
SPEAKER_01
Smart payment management. There you go. Summarized as smart payment management. So this is super, super important because what I've noticed recently is I had this fantastic line, right? Awesome salary, great job, mortgage, etc.
But when we tried to refinance him, we couldn't because his credit score showed that he was failing a lot of payments. Yeah. And when we were digging into it, what happened was a lot of his payments were coming out before his salary was coming in. Yeah. So this is a mistake number one. Yeah. Make sure to set up your payments after you get paid. Yeah, the day after you get paid. Yeah, because I think a lot of times people say, oh, I get paid on Tuesday. But they don't realize that sometimes it can come late on Tuesday. It depends on who processes the pay. Yeah. Look, I'm a one-man band, you know, self-employed person that's running a business and I have to do my own payroll. So sometimes you girls get paid on a Monday, sometimes you might get paid on a Friday. You know, it depends when I click the button. But in the in the sense that sometimes if you know you get paid on Tuesdays, set your payments on a Wednesday or Thursday.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So that's in an ideal world to do that. But also what we have seen as well is direct debit payments. So direct debit is set up by the third party. So it could be your insurance
company or you paying your council rates. So you have options to set up direct debits. Sometimes those direct debits are also set up incorrectly or on the wrong day and things like that, which results in the mispayment. I think our clients don't realise, or a lot of our community, they don't realise that those payments get sent to the credit report. So when we refer to credit reports, misspayments for those sort of things, including your power bill, your Sky bill, your phone bill, things like that, if you've missed them, it gets actually sent to a report, which then the bank or the lender reads those reports and they see the pattern of you missing those payments. So we have to uh you have to get it right in terms of those dates.
SPEAKER_01
Because the thing is, you know, the phrase of, oh, I didn't know, didn't pay attention, is not good enough. We're all adults, yeah, we're managing an adult world and we expect it to be on top of our payments. And when it comes to money, super, super important. Especially if you want to be refinancing or buying a first home or buying a second property. It's super important. Every bank will run a credit check and those things will come up.
SPEAKER_00
Correct, correct. They are now on the root credit report. Those credit reports are so more was it detailed these days, yeah, compared to like 10 years ago. Correct, correct. 10 years ago, you could flick a button and there'll be just you know what you have in terms of your credit and like your credit cards, the loans, the personal loans. But nowadays, it has your power pill, yeah, and like your util your utilities. And the way the banks use those reports is they see the it's the pattern thing. They want to see what your pattern is, it's based on, you know, can you
repay these utilities if you can't? It's showing them a little bit of a red flag in terms of are they are you gonna be able to manage a big loan?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it just comes back down to those five C's. Yes, right? Yeah, yeah. That's the credit and the character. Correct. And one of the C's is the character. Correct. Are you of a good character? Are you taking responsibility for your money? Yeah, so tip number one, guys, make sure you pay your any repayments that you need to make, automatic payments, insurance rates, on the cycle that aligns with your pay. Yes. But hey, here's a curly one. So we've got an insurance provider that we deal with, yeah, and they only do monthly payments on the 20th of each month.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
And this is where people go, oh, but how can I align it? You know, if I get paid weekly, if I get paid fortnightly. So here is a tip. What I normally say to clients is set up a bank account, a separate bank account. Because you can set up 50 bank accounts up the wazoo if you wanted to. Yes. Multiple bank accounts. Yeah, and some people follow the Be a Foot investor program as well. And part of that, I believe he suggests open an account for every single
expense in your life. I'm a little bit unsure about that. Me too. That's a little bit excessive. A little bit excessive, especially if you're not used to managing your money properly. So, what I would normally recommend is set up a separate account. So you've got your main mortgage account where your mortgage comes out from, that's your everyday account. And then on the side, you could do like a bills account where all your utilities will come out from. So your rates, your insurances. If you wanted your power and internet to come out from that as well, you could do that. So then do your budget. And if you get paid, let's say weekly, you know how much to put aside each week into that account. Yeah. And then from that account, the money will come out. So for the insurance, it will come out monthly. For rates, it will come out however you want to set it up, whether it's weekly or fortnightly or monthly. And same for power. Usually power is monthly. So that way it makes it more manageable for you. So you know you've got a pool of money and the money just sits there and no payment will ever bounce. Yes. So then it will never affect your credit check. Yep.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And especially if you're in a um a joint household as well. So you may have Mrs. being paid monthly, Mr. being paid fortnightly.
So again, you know, your income isn't aligning to those payments as well. So you can set up a joint account like you recommend. And then you could because also your income might be going to your individual accounts as well. So yeah, set up a joint account. So then you both, when you get paid, obviously you've worked out your budget to how much you need to feed into that joint account. So they can pull money into those that joint account as well to cover the household expenses as well as you know the mortgage payments, the insurance payments, and the rate payments.
SPEAKER_01
And the beauty of some of the banks that we work with, they've got an offset account, for instance, that you can actually use, you can still utilize all those accounts that you're using for your bill
payment to offset your mortgage. So if you set it up in a very smart way, and this is, I guess, where the our power comes in, is to sit down with people and explain all those steps to them, you you're gonna make your money work for you. You're not working for money, the money is working for you.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And guys, there's like so many tools online as well that you could research and Google and give those tips as well as obviously talking to your financial advisor to get those tips in terms of smart money management.
SPEAKER_01
I love that. Smart money management. Awesome. Conjur, anything else to add?
SPEAKER_00
No, I think we've covered it. Just you know, ensure that you've got funds in that account that you've set aside for your mortgage payments and your bills and your rates, insurance, and things like that.
got any questions, guys, please feel free to reach out to us. You know, we don't charge to sit down with you and look at your accounts. And and we've been really enjoying it because it's best to be prepared now for the future, because sometimes the banks want to see three months, six months good account conduct behavior. So if the sooner you start, the better it is. Yeah. So think of it like a marathon. You don't just get up and run a marathon. You know, you you prepare for it every day. I'm still preparing. You know, you still prepare for it every day. And you've got to start with walking and then you add running, and then you know, you run a bit further. So, same with your money. We help you to get to where you want to be, but we can't help you if you come to us on the on the day that you need it. Yeah. So think ahead. Awesome, guys. Thank you so much for listening in and stay tuned. Thank you. Bye.
