A lower rate only matters if the switch stacks up.
Refinancing isn’t only about chasing a lower rate, it can be about accessing equity, consolidating debt, or moving to a structure that fits your life better. Work through these ten steps before deciding, then run the full numbers in the Refinance Workbench.
1. Start with your current loan, split by split
For every split you hold: balance, rate, remaining term, fixed or variable, interest-only or principal & interest, offset balance, annual fee, and fixed-rate expiry if applicable. A blended, single-number view of a multi-split loan hides more than it reveals, the Refinance Workbench models each split separately for this reason.
2. Get a real payout picture
Ask your current lender for your discharge fee, a fixed-rate break-cost quote if relevant, interest accrued to the payout date, and any other lender-specific payout items. This site never guesses a break cost, see Break cost in the Loan Feature Explorer for why.
3. Compare the proposed structure properly
Rate, loan amount, term, fees, offset and redraw availability, fixed/variable splits, any cash-out component, and the annual fee all need to be compared, not just the headline rate.
4. Government and registry costs
A refinance can involve new mortgage registration and discharge-related costs, depending on your state and the transaction. Confirm current fees with your conveyancer or the state titles office, this tool notes them but does not estimate a figure.
5. Break-even is the basic view, not the whole view
Dividing total switching cost by the estimated monthly saving gives you a break-even point, but it’s only a starting point. Also compare the new loan term against your current remaining term, total interest over a chosen horizon (not just the next 12 months), any annual fee difference, cashback treated as a separate one-off item, and any features you’d gain or lose.
6. Term reset, the strongest warning on this page
Refinancing from, say, 25 years remaining back to a fresh 30-year term can lower your monthly repayment while increasing the total interest you’ll pay over the life of the loan. This is one of the most common ways a refinance looks better than it is on repayment alone. The Refinance Workbench compares your longest current remaining term against your longest proposed term and flags it prominently whenever the new term is longer.
7. Cashback, a one-off credit, not a lower ongoing cost
Treat any cashback offer as a one-off credit against your switching costs, not as evidence the new loan is cheaper to hold. Read the conditions, minimum term, clawback periods and minimum loan size commonly apply. See Cashback / incentives in the Loan Feature Explorer.
8. If any split is fixed
A break cost on a fixed split can materially change whether refinancing makes sense at all. Enter an actual lender quote into the Refinance Workbench’s break-cost field for that split, never a generic estimate.
9. Equity and LVR
Changes in your property’s value since you bought or last refinanced can affect which products, pricing and approval outcomes are realistically available to you now. Check your current LVR with the Deposit & LVR calculator in the Calculator Lab.
10. Cashing out equity
Releasing equity as cash through a refinance is subject to lender policy on purpose and evidence, and is never guaranteed. What a lender will accept as an acceptable purpose, and what evidence they’ll want, is genuinely lender-specific.
Run the full comparison: the Refinance Workbench models multiple current-loan splits against one or more proposed splits, including switching costs, break-even, the term-reset warning above, and a print-friendly comparison summary.