Signing up for a home loan is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make, and with a little discipline and planning you can turn it, and your home, into one of your most successful long-term investments.

But all it takes is one hidden bank mistake, and things can go horribly wrong. If your lender forgets to link your offset account to your home loan, or sets you up with the wrong interest rate, then a simple bank mistake could cost your tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage.

If you are trying to pay off your mortgage sooner, then the last thing you want is an undetected bank mistake dragging you backwards.

What If I Find A Bank Mistake?

If you find a bank mistake in your mortgage then the best thing to do is contact your bank and let them know, and ask them what you should do. They may look into it straight away, or they might want you to fill in a bank mistake form or get you to send in information from your statements.

Generally the banks are really good at fixing their mistakes, once they have been notified. So go to the bank and let them know about the error.

How Often Do Bank Mistakes Happen?

Unfortunately the banks don't have report the number of errors on their statements, and it's a competitive market out there at the moment, so the banks don't really want to be out there saying "we found 100 bank mistakes this week".

If it is a large bank mistake involving thousands of clients and millions of dollars (like the recent BOQ mistake) then it will generally make it into the media, but a mistake on an individual account would be fixed and we wouldn't hear about it.

What Type of Bank Mistake Occur?

We see two main categories of bank mistakes; the really big mistakes that impact thousands of clients, and the banks tend to find over time - might take them a year or two, but they will find the mistake and then try and fix it up.

It's when the bank mistake is in just your account that the bank is unlikely to pick it up as it will be too small for them to notice. So it's up to you to find the error, or no one else will.

For example, bank mistakes to look out for include:

Offset account set and not linked.

Maybe you negotiated a 0.50% discount for your loan, but the bank forgot to activate it in their back office system.

Sometimes the wrong rate can be applied.

A deposit goes into the wrong account, or isn't correctly applied to your principal.

Which Bank Mistakes Software?

Home Loan Manager Pro is the easy and affordable way to check your mortgage for bank mistakes. Using the information from your Internet banking site, you can instantly load your loan details into the software and find out exactly how much you have been overcharged.

Since 2004 Home Loan Manager has helped thousands of homeowners manage their mortgages, lines of credit, home loans and other long term debt, and it is trusted by property investors and homeowners across five continents.

Best of all you can download and try it free, so you can start checking for bank mistakes straight away.