Will refinancing your home loan put you ahead?
Compare your current mortgage with a proposed refinance, including switching costs, fees, cashback, term and offset.
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Your Current Loan
What your lender shows you owe today. Nothing about the loan's past changes the comparison from here.
The interest rate on your loan, not the comparison rate. Fees go in their own fields below.
Remaining term
years
months
The amount your lender actually debits each time, from your statement. Not the minimum, if you pay more than it.
A package or account fee your current lender charges each year, and any savings you hold in an offset against this loan.
Charged a year from the comparison date and on each anniversary while the loan is open.
Savings held against the loan, reducing the balance interest is charged on each day. The money stays yours and is held at the same amount throughout.
The day both loans are modelled from, and the day your balance is as at. Defaults to today.
The Proposed Loan
The rate the new lender has quoted, not their comparison rate. Above 0% and no more than 20%.
Proposed term
The proposal will run for whatever remains on your current loan, so only the rate and the costs change.
A package or account fee the new lender charges each year. A fee due at settlement belongs in switching costs below.
Charged a year from the comparison date and on each anniversary while the loan is open, the same way your current fee is.
You have not entered an offset balance, so there is no offset cash to move to the new loan. Neither loan is modelled with one.
Switching Costs and Cashback
Add up what the two lenders have quoted you: discharge, application, settlement or legal, mortgage registration, valuation, any quoted break cost, lenders mortgage insurance and anything else charged to switch. None of these is estimated for you.
Costs added to the loan will also attract interest. The rest is paid upfront on the comparison date.
Enter a confirmed offer and when you expect to receive it. Eligibility, conditions and clawbacks are not modelled.
Comparison Horizon
How long you expect to hold the loan. The proposed term is deliberately not offered here: a longer proposal would move the finish line it is being judged against.
Estimate only. See what this comparison assumes and what it leaves out.Show
It is an estimate, not an approval. It compares the figures and dates you enter. It is not loan approval, a lender recommendation or a product comparison, and it does not check whether you would qualify.
Rates are held constant. Both rates run unchanged for the whole comparison. This is not a rate forecast, and actual lender interest, repayment and fee timing can differ.
You enter the costs. Break costs, lenders mortgage insurance, eligibility and cashback clawbacks are never estimated here. Enter what your lenders have quoted and a cashback you have confirmed.
Principal and interest only. Fixed and introductory rate periods, interest-only periods, split loans, cash-out and debt consolidation are not modelled. If your lender has quoted a break cost you can include that amount in switching costs, but a fixed-rate loan is still outside what this calculator can represent.
How the loans are run. Interest accrues daily on the balance less any offset and is added to the loan at the end of each month, the same way the calx home loan calculator runs it. Weekly and fortnightly repayments are converted from the monthly amount and total the same over a year. Annual fees are first charged one year after the comparison date and on each anniversary while that loan is open; a fee falling on the day a loan is paid off is not charged. An offset balance is held at the same amount throughout, and the cash stays yours.
What the result is. Nominal dollars: what each option has cost you and what you still owe on it, on the same day. It does not include inflation, opportunity cost, tax, or any change in what the property is worth. A lower repayment is a change in cash flow, not a saving.
Comparison rates are not calculated. Enter each lender's interest rate here and compare their published comparison rates and loan features separately.
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Frequently asked questions
How does the break-even calculation work?
Both loans are run day by day from the comparison date, and on every day each one is measured the same way: what you have paid it so far, plus what you still owe on it including interest accrued but not yet charged, plus any costs paid outside the loan, less any cashback received. The difference between those two figures is how much better or worse off the refinance leaves you on that day. Break-even is the first day that difference reaches zero and never falls below zero again before both loans are finished, so a cashback or a fee anniversary cannot produce a crossover that is later undone.
Are principal repayments treated as a cost?
No. Money that pays down principal moves from your cash into your equity, so it is not a cost of borrowing. That is why what you still owe is added to what you have paid: two loans that differ only in how fast the principal comes down compare as equal, and a longer term with a lower repayment cannot look like a saving when it is only paying more slowly.
What switching costs should I include?
Everything the two lenders have quoted you to make the switch: a discharge fee from your current lender, and application, settlement or legal, valuation, mortgage registration and lenders mortgage insurance from the new one, plus any break cost your lender has quoted in writing. None of these is estimated for you, because they depend on your lender, your state and your loan. A package fee due at settlement belongs in switching costs; a fee charged every year belongs in the annual fee field.
What if the switching costs are added to the loan?
Enter how much of the total is added, and the new loan opens at your balance plus that amount. From there it accrues interest like any other borrowing and is repaid over the term, so it is counted once, as extra debt, and never a second time as a cash cost. The rest of the total is treated as cash paid on the comparison date. Adding costs to the loan does not make them cheaper: it spreads them, and you pay interest on them.
How is cashback treated?
As a cash credit on the date you say you expect to receive it, not on the day you switch, because lenders pay cashback at different times and some pay it months later. Enter only an offer you have confirmed in dollars. Eligibility, conditions, minimum loan sizes, retention periods and clawbacks are not modelled, and a cashback that gets you ahead early does not count as break-even unless you stay ahead afterwards.
Why can a lower repayment still cost more?
Usually because the new loan runs for longer. A lower minimum repayment on a longer term is a change in your monthly cash flow, not a saving: the same debt is spread over more years, so more interest is charged in total. The calculator says so whenever the proposed term is longer than what is left on your current loan, shows both payoff dates, and offers a comparison that keeps your current repayment budget so you can see what the lower rate is worth without the term reset.
Does this calculator support fixed-rate loans?
No. Both rates are entered by you and held constant for the whole comparison, which describes a variable loan or a fixed one whose rate you assume for the period. Fixed and introductory rate periods, and what happens when they end, are not modelled. If your lender has quoted a break cost you can include that amount in your switching costs, but the rate path after a fixed period is unknown and this calculator does not guess at it. Interest-only periods, split loans, cash-out and debt consolidation are also outside it.
Does a positive result mean my refinance will be approved?
No. This is an estimate built from the figures and dates you enter, and it is not loan approval, a lender recommendation or a product comparison. A lender will assess your income, expenses, debts, credit history and the property before agreeing to anything. Compare each lender’s published comparison rate and loan features separately: this calculator does not calculate a comparison rate.