You should look beyond /asunnon-osto/mika-korko-asuntolainaan/interest rates when comparing home loan prices. In reality, it's the overall package that matters most. The whole range of benefits should be calculated, not just the costs: OP Pohjola is the only bank that offers bonuses on loans.

"Owner-customers oftive banks benefit from OP bonuses, which accumulate year after year. In the case of a home loan from an OP cooperative bank, these can mean a total benefit worth thousands of euros over the entire loan term," says Hanna Heinonen, Head of Personal Finance at OP Pohjola.

The margin doesn't tell you everything about the price

When considering a home loan, customers often check the interest rate first, particularly the margin, which is the bank's 'cut' of the loan price. However, this only tells part of the story.

When an owner-customer takes out a home loan with an OP cooperative bank, OP bonuses are accrued automatically on the basis of the loan amount. They are also earned on other daily OP Pohjola services, such as insurance and savings. Becoming an owner-customer is easy, by paying a member cooperative contribution, which is €100 in most OP cooperative banks.

OP bonuses accumulate annually, at 0.28% of the loan principal after taxes.

Heinonen points out that OP bonuses should be viewed as part of the overall loan offer, not as a separate benefit.

"In practice, the breakdown may look something like this: with a loan margin of, say, 0.6% the true comparison figure would be 0.32% after the benefits brought by OP bonuses are counted."

A lot of OP bonuses can be earned from long-term loans

Home loans are often long-term, which increases the significance of OP bonuses. For example, OP bonuses of around €700 would accrue for the first year of a €250,000 loan. Around €12,000 might be earned across an entire home loan term of 30 years.

"The margin does not, therefore, tell the whole truth about the cost of a home loan. With our OP bonus calculator‍, you can check the amount of OP bonuses you would earn during the first year of borrowing for different loan amounts," Heinonen says.

OP bonus calculations assume that the total interest rate, costs and OP bonus earning percentage (0.28%) remain unchanged across the loan term. Final bonus accrual depends on the actual repayment plan and the annually confirmed OP bonus earning percentage.

Use a wide range of our services to make life easy

As well as home loans, OP bonuses accrue on most other OP Pohjola banking, insurance and investment services: the more you use, the more you'll get out of OP bonuses and owner-customer benefits. For an overview, you can also take a look at the bonus tables.‍

Using a range of our services makes daily life easier: everything's available in one place and through a single app.

Owner-customers can decide how to use OP bonuses. As a default, OP bonuses are used for banking service charges and insurance premiums. You can also invest OP bonuses in funds on OP-mobile, use them to pay legal service fees, or take them out as cash.

If you want to become an owner-customer, you must pay a member cooperative contribution, which is €100 in most OP cooperative banks. There are no other membership fees. If you decide to cancel your owner-customer status, your member contribution will be refunded. Read more about owner-customer memberships of OP cooperative banks‍.