A refinance is worth doing when the saving clears the switching costs quickly and keeps paying after that. Enter your current loan and the rate you have been offered, and this calculator shows the monthly saving, the month you break even, the net position after five years, and the lifetime interest saved if you keep paying what you pay today. If the answer is no, it says so.
If your loan is above 80% of the property's current value, a new lender will charge LMI again, which usually ends the case for switching. Ask the team to check before you apply anywhere.
Switching costs default to a typical Victorian refinance: discharge fee, two government fees and a new-lender setup. Break costs on a fixed loan are extra and must come from your lender in writing.
Get the real number from the team →Every assumption the tool makes, so you can see where your situation differs.
Figures checked October 2026. Rates and thresholds change; the team re-checks before every application.
Compare the first-year saving against the all-in cost of moving. If you break even inside twelve months and keep saving after that, switch. If the saving is a tenth of a point on a small balance, or the new lender will charge LMI, stay and negotiate with your current lender instead.
The calculator's five-year net benefit is the figure to watch. Rates move, so a saving that takes four years to clear its costs is a bet on nothing changing, which in 2026 is a poor bet.
Because the real win from a lower rate is not the smaller repayment, it is paying the same amount and having more of it hit the principal. On a $620,000 loan, keeping repayments level after a 0.8-point cut clears the loan about four years early and saves far more interest than pocketing the difference.
Typically $600 to $1,500 in Victoria: the outgoing discharge fee, two government fees of about $130 each, and whatever the new lender charges to set up, which is often nothing. The one cost that can be large is a fixed-rate break fee, and it only bites when rates have fallen since you fixed.
After the 2026 rate rises, most loans fixed in 2024 or 2025 should carry little or no break cost, but ask your lender for the figure in writing before you decide anything.
Possibly. APRA's 3-point buffer applies, but a number of lenders assess a clean, like-for-like refinance at a lower buffer, often around 1 point, if the loan is 80% of value or less and repayments are up to date. Which lenders changes, so the team checks at the time.
If even that fails, the better move is a retention discount from your existing lender, which costs you nothing to ask for. See the refinancing page.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask cinchi (bottom right) or book a chat.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with total interest and what extra repayments save.
Open calculator →01Roughly how much a lender would let you borrow, with the 3% buffer applied.
Open calculator →04Victorian duty with the first-home and owner-occupier concessions built in.
Open calculator →AllThe five tools and the cinchi assistant on one page.
See all →Switch when it pays. Stay when it doesn't. A cinch.
I'm cinchi, Cinch Loans' AI assistant. I explain how Australian home loans and finance work, and when a question needs a current figure I check trusted sources like MoneySmart, Housing Australia, the RBA and the state revenue offices, and show you where it came from. Suvidh and the team give the actual advice. Your questions are saved so they can pick up where we left off, and when a question needs a person, I'll put you straight through on WhatsApp.
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cinchi is an AI assistant. It can be wrong. Figures are quoted from the source shown and change over time. Nothing here is personal credit advice or an offer of credit. Credit Guide · Privacy · Talk to Suvidh