ASP account

Save with an ASP account to buy your first home.

An easy and rewarding way to save for your first home

Save 10% of the price of your first home in an ASP account and you can receive an ASP loan to buy the home. Start by saving as little as 50 euros a month.

Exceptionally high interest rate on savings towards buying a first home

In addition to the annual deposit rate, your ASP savings will be increased by generous bonus interest when you buy your first home. The OP cooperative bank's owner-customers will also earn OP bonuses on their savings in the ASP account.

Better loan terms and conditions for ASP savers

You may be entitled to a ten-year interest subsidy and a free state guarantee on your ASP loan or part of it.

Open an ASP account

The key to the first home of your own – what is an ASP account?

An ASP (home saver’s bonus interest) account is a convenient and rewarding way to save for the first home of your own. It offers a better interest rate on your savings. Once you’ve saved the required amount and are ready to buy a home, you can take out an ASP loan with attractive terms and conditions. As an owner-customer of your OP cooperative bank, you will also earn OP bonuses on the money in your ASP account.

How do I open an ASP account?

Opening an ASP account is easy. Use your OP user ID to log into the op.fi service and start saving for your first home today. Alternatively, you can book an appointment or call our Customer Service for advice on becoming an ASP saver.

Who is the ASP savings scheme for?

Saving with an ASP account is ideal for you if you are dreaming of buying your first home and you are 15–44 years old. You should start saving well in advance, even if you don’t plan to buy a home for several years. You won’t need a regular income to start saving with the ASP scheme.

How does the ASP savings scheme work?

You make the first deposit into your ASP account when you open it.
To fulfil the terms of your ASP account, you must deposit 150 - 4,500 euros to the account each quarter for a period of at least eight quarters. There is no maximum period for saving.
Saving is flexible: the quarters don’t need to be successive and you can skip quarters if you need to. Also, you can easily change the amounts and timing of savings as you go along.
In addition to the annual 1% tax-free deposit rate of ASP accounts, we will pay 4% tax-free bonus interest for the first year you make deposits and the five following years. The bonus interest will be paid when the ASP terms and conditions are met and you raise the ASP loan for buying a home. Deposit interest is added to the account's funds annually on 31 December.
When you have saved 10% of your home’s purchase price, the bank can grant you the remainder as an ASP loan. If you are buying a home with another person, you must buy at least 50% of the home and save 10% of your share of the price.
Your ASP account is closed in the OP cooperative bank when you purchase a home. Otherwise, you can close an ASP account in the op.fi service or by calling our Customer Service. Remember that you can always take a break from ASP saving.

Who can open an ASP account?

You must be aged 15–44.
You can have a maximum of one ASP account. If you have already opened an ASP account with another bank, you can transfer the account to an OP cooperative bank with no interruption in saving for your first home.
You must never have had 50% or higher ownership of any apartment.
Children aged 15–17 can open an account at a branch together with their guardians. The savings must be earnings from work done by the underage saver.

Opening a joint ASP account

You can open an ASP account with your spouse, for example, or they can be added to the account later. The account holder must be aged 15–44.

The person added to the account may be over 44 years old if the person in question is married, in a registered partnership with the account holder or a cohabiting partner. In the Act on Bonus for Home Savers, cohabiting partner refers to partners who live in a relationship if they have or have had a child together or have previously been married to one another or in a registered partnership.

Any other person must be 15–44 years old in order to be added on the ASP account.

A joint ASP account cannot be opened in op.fi service. Please, contact our customer service if you want to open a joint ASP account.

Interest rate of an ASP account Interest rate, taxation

How is the interest rate calculated?

ASP account offers a better interest rate on your savings. In addition to the 1% deposit rate, we will pay a 4%* bonus interest rate for the first year of saving, and then for the five following calendar years at most. The additional interest is paid when you have reached your savings target and you withdraw the ASP loan.

The principal and deposit interest of an ASP account are covered by the deposit guarantee to the amount prescribed by law. OP Financial Group member banks are considered a single bank from the perspective of the deposit guarantee.

*For accounts opened before 1 October 2019, the bonus interest rate is 2% to 4%, depending on the OP cooperative bank.

Taxation

Deposit interest and bonus interest paid into an ASP savings account are tax exempt, if the ASP scheme’s terms are met. If you stop saving into an ASP account prematurely, or fail to meet ASP terms and conditions, bonus interest will not be paid and the deposit interest will be subject to tax at source.

Check the interest on your account

You can check the interest rate on your account by logging in to op.fi service or OP-mobile using your OP user ID.

How to check the interest rate on your account in the op.fi service:

Log in to the op.fi service.
In the main menu, open the section Money and select Accounts, My accounts.
After this, select Account details and Edit details.
You then need to select the account whose details you want to view.

Log into op.fi and go to account details

How to check the interest rate on your account in OP-mobile:

Log in to OP-mobile.
Select the account whose interest rate information you want to view.
Go to Account settings by tapping the gear icon.
Select Account interest rate.

Benefits of an ASP loan Collateral, state interest subsidy, loan amounts

You can apply for an ASP loan when you have saved at least 10% of the home’s purchase price. The maximum loan term is 25 years.

You are entitled to a government interest subsidy and a free state guarantee on your ASP loan or a part of it. The interest subsidy is valid for 10 years: if the interest on your ASP loan exceeds 3.8% during the interest subsidy period, the state pays 70% of the interest exceeding that rate. With the state guarantee, your loan may be up to 90% of your home’s purchase price. You can get a state guarantee of up to 60,000 euros per home.

Maximum amounts of interest-subsidised ASP loans

In ASP loans with an interest subsidy, the maximum loan amount depends on where the home is located and the number of ASP loan applicants.

MUNICIPALITY	ONE ASP LOAN APPLICANT	TWO ASP LOAN APPLICANTS
Helsinki	230,000 euros	345,000 euros
Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen	185,000 euros	277,500 euros
Tampere and Turku	160,000 euros	240,000 euros
Other municipalities	140,000 euros	210,000 euros

Additional ASP loan

If the price of your first home is higher than the maximum amount of your ASP interest-subsidy loan, you can apply for an additional ASP loan.