Refinancing to consolidate debt
Carrying a credit card, a car loan and a personal loan alongside your mortgage? Rolling them in replaces several high-rate repayments with one lower-rate repayment, and cash flow improves immediately.
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Home loan rates are lower, but home loan terms are longer. Note that moving a five-year car loan onto a 30-year mortgage means the monthly cost drops while total interest can rise substantially. The debt also becomes secured against your home rather than unsecured.
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Debt consolidation loan borrowers in Queensland get real value from this when the freed-up cash flow is used deliberately. That is why our team sets the consolidated portion on a shorter separate split as a matter of course. If we do not think it is right for you, we will say so.
Refinancing to reduce your rate
We are also cautious about cashback offers. A cashback is worth having when the underlying rate is competitive. When it is compensation for a higher rate, you may be paying for your own gift.
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One thing to know upfront: a home loan refinance application means qualifying again at current buffered rates. If your income or circumstances have changed, talk to us before applying anywhere, because a decline sits on your credit file.
With a new lender paying your existing loan, you carry the same debt but at a lower cost, with the relief starting immediately. Here are three things we check before recommending it:
Whether your current lender will reprice.
It costs nothing to ask, and it sometimes works, especially with a competing offer in hand. If they match, they'll tell you so rather than push a switch you don't need.
The switching costs.
These include a discharge fee, application or settlement fees at the new lender, and a valuation. Usually modest against the savings, but they belong in the calculation rather than the fine print.
Break costs if you are fixed.
Exiting a fixed loan early can be expensive depending on where rates have moved. Sometimes, the right advice is to wait for expiry with everything prepared to move the week it ends.
End-to-end care, including the part everyone dreads
Refinancing has one genuinely painful step, and it is the discharge from your existing lender. Left to run at its own pace, it adds weeks.
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The Queensland Mortgage Company runs that process for you. We are the local, seasoned mortgage brokers you can come back to because you get one contact, a free loan review across more than 60 lenders, and a straight answer, including "stay where you are" when that is the right call. Then we review it again each year so you are not back here in three.
Questions we get asked before the first call
No. Queensland abolished mortgage duty, so refinancing an existing loan does not attract duty the way a purchase does. You will still face lender fees and a valuation, which is why the switching cost calculation matters more than any duty concern.
Not lose, but you do need to plan for it. Funds sitting in an offset are yours and move with you, while redraw availability is part of the old loan and disappears on discharge. Tell us what you are holding, so we can properly set up equivalent features on the new loan.
Usually two to four weeks from application to settlement, and the discharge from your existing lender is almost always the slow part. We lodge that request in parallel rather than waiting for approval, which is where most of the lost time goes.
Often yes, though it can affect the valuation and your insurance cost, and a small number of lenders are cautious about particular areas. Tell us upfront so that we can approach a lender comfortable with it rather than collecting a decline first.
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Refinancing to release equity
Usable equity is generally 80% of your property's current value less what you owe. An equity release loan turns it into cash or an available facility.
What our Queensland clients use it for:​
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Renovating, which often beats moving once transfer duty and selling costs are counted
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An investment deposit, held as a separate split against your home
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Business needs or a tax obligation, including consolidating an ATO debt into a lower-cost facility
​Lenders want to know the purpose, and for larger releases, may want quotes or contracts, so we will tell you what to gather beforehand.​