MortgageSMART™Own it sooner
General information only — illustrative modelling, not credit assistance or an offer of finance. Actual outcomes depend on your circumstances, lender policy, rates and fees.
Why do some homeowners never seem to make a dent in their mortgage, while others on similar incomes own their home outright in well under thirty years?
It's rarely income. It's that the second group stopped following the default plan and put a deliberate one in place instead — with a target date, a structure built around it, and every spare dollar aimed at the same thing.
The reset trap
Every refinance offer is built around things that feel like wins: a lower rate, a lower repayment, sometimes a few thousand in cashback. None of them are bad on their own.
Tap each one to see what it can cost when the loan behind it is written back out to thirty years.
* Examples only, not an offer of finance. All three assume a $667,000 loan — around the average new owner-occupier loan in Australia — with 25 years left to run, monthly repayments, a constant rate and no extra repayments. The lower-rate example applies a 0.5% rate reduction with the loan rewritten over a fresh 30 years. The lower-repayment example holds the rate and stretches the term to 30 years. The cashback example compares sharp pricing against a rate 0.25% higher over the first 3 years, and ignores discharge, settlement and registration costs, which also come out of any cashback. Your own figures will differ.
What we'd cover
A complimentary video call, no obligation, and you leave with clarity whether you do anything with us or not.
Being straight with you
The shortest timelines you'll see in our client stories came from consolidating a pile of expensive debt and putting the freed-up cash flow straight back onto the mortgage. That combination is powerful, and it isn't everyone's situation.
If you have no other debts and little spare cash flow, a good structure will still bring your date forward — just not by decades. We'd rather tell you that up front than have you discover it later.
Everything here is general information only. Any figures are illustrations based on the numbers you enter, not an offer of finance or a projection of your results.
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.
Loyal bank clients, ignored
Ten years of loyalty and their bank still offered new customers a rate 1% lower. They switched and saved over $300 a month.
Your timeline
Answer a few questions about your loan and any other debts, and we'll show what your current path looks like against a structured plan.
Two minutes · no documents · no credit check
A complimentary video call where we map your position, your options and a target date. No obligation to go any further.
Video, phone or email — whatever suits you.
Good to know
No. The shortest timelines on our client files usually involve consolidating other debts and redirecting a meaningful surplus back onto the mortgage. A straightforward refinance with no other debts and no spare cash flow will move the date, but not that far. It depends entirely on your numbers.
Three things, in order: the loan term you agree to, how much surplus is directed onto the loan each month, and the interest rate. Most attention goes to the third one, which is usually the least powerful of the three.
On an amortising loan, extra repayments come straight off the principal, so they also remove all the future interest that balance would have attracted. That compounding is why small consistent amounts can shift the payoff date by years.
Often yes — features like an offset account or redraw are designed for exactly that. Availability, fees and conditions vary between lenders and loan types.
A longer term produces a lower minimum repayment, which makes a loan easier to approve and easier to sell. It also means considerably more interest is paid across the life of the loan.
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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