Meet cinchi: what the orange button knows, and what it won't say

There's an orange button in the corner of every page on this site that says "Ask cinchi". If you've pressed it, you might be wondering what it is, what it knows, and whether it's me.

It isn't me. Here's what it is.

What cinchi is

cinchi, short for Cinch Intelligence, is an AI assistant we built for this site. Its job is narrow on purpose: explain how Australian home loans and finance work, in plain English, and help you get ready for a conversation with a person.

Ask it what lenders mortgage insurance is, how the serviceability buffer works, what a chattel mortgage is or what "genuine savings" means, and it'll tell you. Ask it the Melbourne price cap under the 5% Deposit Scheme and it'll go and look it up.

Where its answers come from

This is the part I'd want to know if I were using it. For anything that changes over time, which is most of the numbers in home lending, cinchi doesn't answer from memory. It searches a short list of sources we've chosen: Moneysmart, Housing Australia, the Reserve Bank, the ATO and the state revenue offices among them. It quotes the figure with the source and the date on the page, so you can check it yourself.

If it can't find a current figure on one of those sources, it says so, rather than guessing. It doesn't read forums, social media or comparison sites, because those are where most of the wrong numbers on the internet live.

What it won't do

cinchi gives general information only. It won't recommend a lender, a product, a rate or a loan size for you, and it won't tell you whether you'd be approved. Those are personal credit advice, and under Australian credit law that's a job for a licensed person who has looked at your actual situation.

So when a question starts with "should I", "can I afford" or "am I eligible", cinchi will say that it depends on your circumstances, summarise what you've told it, and offer to get you to me: a free 30-minute chat booked straight into my calendar, or your question passed through so I can pick it up. It isn't an accountant, planner or lawyer either, and it'll say so if you ask it a tax question.

It also won't promise anything. "Typically" and "often" are in its vocabulary. "Will be approved" isn't.

What happens to what you tell it

Your conversation is saved under a reference, so that if you book a chat afterwards, I can see what you've already covered and we don't start from zero. If you share figures, like your income or a property price, cinchi acknowledges them and notes them for the team; it won't read them back to you unnecessarily.

We don't sell or share that information, and it's covered by the same privacy policy as the rest of the site. If you'd rather not have a conversation saved, don't type anything personal into it; the general questions work fine without.

Why we built it this way

I could have put a chatbot on the site that answered everything confidently. Plenty do. The trouble is that confident and correct aren't the same thing, and in lending a confident wrong answer about a price cap or a buffer costs someone real money.

So cinchi is built to know the edge of what it knows. General question, it answers with a source. Personal question, it hands over. Can't find the figure, it says so. That's the same standard I'd hold a new team member to, and it's the reason I'm comfortable putting it on the front page.

How to get the most out of it

• Ask it to explain a term before you read an article. It's quicker than Google and it'll cite where the definition came from.
• Ask it for the current figure on a scheme or a cap, and check the date it gives you.
• Use it to prepare for a chat. Tell it what you're trying to do and it will tell you what the team will ask for.
• When it offers to hand over, let it. That's the point where a person is worth more than a page.

It's new, and it will get better the more it's used. If it gives you a wrong or unhelpful answer, tell me. I see the questions it gets, and that's how it improves.

Last reviewed 25 October 2026. Cinch Loans is a trading name of Additude Financial Services Pty Ltd (ABN 87 629 633 423), a credit representative authorised under Australian Credit Licence 389087 held by Australian Finance Group Ltd. cinchi's answers are general information only and don't take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account.