MortgageSMART™Consolidate
General information only — illustrative modelling, not credit assistance or an offer of finance. Actual outcomes depend on your circumstances, lender policy, rates and fees.
Managing several repayments at once is a reliable way to never quite finish paying any of them off. Different days, different amounts, different rates — some of them well into the twenties.
Plenty of homeowners refinance without ever mentioning the other things in the background: credit cards, car loans, personal loans, and those "interest-free" plans for solar, appliances or electronics.
Why it happens
When you're barely getting through the month and only making minimum payments, it can feel like a treadmill. Credit cards in particular are structured so the minimum barely dents the balance.
After the mortgage, the car, the personal loan and everyday costs, paying only the minimum is completely understandable. It just tends to stretch the debt out for years and keep the stress with it.
The important part
Rolling everything into one lower repayment is only half of it. If the money you free up disappears into day-to-day spending, you've simply moved short-term debt onto a long-term loan — and that can cost more overall.
The version that works keeps the surplus pointed at the mortgage. That's where the big numbers on our client files come from: not the consolidation itself, but what happened to the savings afterwards.
Whether that's realistic for you depends on your income, your equity and your circumstances. This is general information, so the honest answer is that it needs to be modelled on your actual numbers.
What consolidation can cost you
Move a five-year car loan onto a thirty-year mortgage and the monthly repayment falls — but the same balance now has decades to accrue interest. Paid at the new minimum, that debt can end up costing considerably more in total than leaving it where it was.
There are two other trade-offs worth saying plainly. Debt that was unsecured becomes secured against your home. And if the freed-up cash flow gets absorbed by everyday spending, the balances can simply build again on top of a bigger mortgage.
How the MortgageSMART™ way answers it
The structure only works if the saving is deliberately kept on the loan. We model it with your total monthly outgoings held where they are today, so the money the consolidation frees up goes onto the mortgage instead of being handed back as a lower minimum.
That's the difference between stretching debt out and clearing it sooner — and it's why the accounts being closed behind you is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
General information only. Whether any of this suits you depends on your circumstances, your equity and lender policy, and it needs to be modelled on your actual numbers.
If repayments are already unmanageable, refinancing is not always the answer. You can speak to your lender's hardship team, or get free, independent help from the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.
Client results
Names changed for privacy. The figures come from the files themselves and depend on individual circumstances, lender criteria and rates at the time.
Too many repayments
From struggling to meet the repayments on 10 different loan accounts, to being on track to own her home outright in as little as 7 years.
Back to home ownership after bankruptcy
After a Part IV bankruptcy they thought they'd be stuck renting for good. They went from $450 a week in rent to $250 a week on their own home.
Run it on your numbers
List what you owe — cards, loans, buy-now-pay-later — and we'll show the combined repayment, what it frees up each month, and what that does to your payoff date.
Two minutes · no documents · no credit check
Book a complimentary video call. We'll go through what you owe, what's realistic, and what it would take — with no obligation to proceed.
Video, phone or email — whatever suits you.
Good to know
Consolidation means rolling several separate debts — credit cards, personal loans, car loans, buy-now-pay-later or tax debt — into a single loan with one repayment. When it's done through a mortgage, the interest rate on that combined balance is usually far lower than card or personal loan rates.
It can, and that's the trap. Moving a three-year car loan onto a 30-year mortgage lowers the repayment but can raise the total interest. The strategy only works when the money you free up is directed back onto the loan rather than absorbed into spending.
A new loan application is recorded on your credit file, and closed accounts will show as closed. Many people find their file improves over time once there are fewer accounts and repayments are consistently on time, but that depends on your circumstances.
Sometimes. Lenders differ a lot in how they treat late payments, defaults or a past bankruptcy, and some specialise in exactly these situations. It's worth a conversation rather than an assumption.
Yes — the combined balance still needs to sit within the lender's loan-to-value limits for your property, and you need to be able to service the new loan. That's the first thing we check.
Our brokers live and work in Australia, just like you.
Video, phone and email — wherever you are, whenever suits.
Your private information stays private.
We keep reviewing your loan with the lender long after settlement.
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