There are two ways to refinance. Only one of them saves you money.

It depends entirely on the gap between your current rate and what is available to you, and on how the new loan is structured. As a guide, a 0.5% reduction on a $600,000 loan is roughly $250 a month in interest, and around $3,000 a year. Where a review saves considerably more is when the term is held rather than reset, and when higher-rate debts are brought into the same strategy. We put both figures in front of you before you decide anything.

It will if you let it. Most lenders write a refinance as a new 30-year loan by default, which lowers the repayment and raises the total interest. We set the term to match what you have left, or shorter, and keep your repayment where it is so the rate saving goes to the principal rather than to a longer loan.

No. We review your loan every year, and in most years the answer is either no change at all or a repricing request to your existing lender — which is free and often effective. Changing lenders is worth doing when the gap is large enough to clearly beat the switching costs, and we will tell you when that is the case rather than moving you for the sake of it.

The first conversation takes about 15 to 20 minutes. From application, most lenders take roughly two to four weeks to reach formal approval, depending on how quickly a valuation can be completed and how straightforward the income evidence is. Discharging the old loan usually adds a couple of weeks on top, and we manage that end of it for you.

You can, but you may face a break cost, which is the lender's estimate of what it loses by releasing you early. It can be trivial or it can be thousands, depending on how rates have moved since you fixed and how long you have left. We ask your lender for the figure in writing and weigh it against the saving before recommending anything. Where the break cost does not stack up, we plan the refinance for the end of the fixed period instead.

Usually yes, provided there is enough equity and the loan still fits within lender limits. The repayment relief is immediate because the debts move from rates near 12% to 20% down to a mortgage rate. The trap is stretching a five-year debt across 30 years. We only recommend it as part of a plan that redirects the freed-up cash flow back at the mortgage and closes the accounts behind you.

As a rule of thumb, lenders like to see the loan at 80% of the property's value or less, which avoids lender's mortgage insurance and opens up the sharpest pricing. Refinancing above 80% is possible but the options narrow and the cost rises. If you are not sure where you sit, an indicative valuation will tell us quickly.

A refinance application creates a credit enquiry, which has a small, short-lived effect. Multiple applications across several lenders in a short window do more damage, which is one reason to work through a broker: we assess your position against lender policy first and apply once, to the lender most likely to approve you.

Expect a discharge fee from your outgoing lender, government fees to discharge and register the mortgage, and sometimes an application, valuation or settlement fee at the new lender. Together that is commonly a few hundred to around a thousand dollars, and many lenders waive or rebate parts of it. If your loan is partly fixed, a break cost may also apply. We get every figure in writing and only recommend the switch when the saving clearly outweighs it.

Repricing with your existing lender usually costs nothing, and it is always worth asking before you move. The catch is that a reprice only changes the rate — it does not fix the term, the structure or the way your other debts are set up. Where a lender will match sharper pricing and the structure is already right, staying put is often the sensible answer.

It can help or hurt depending on how it is structured. Consolidating high-repayment consumer debts into the mortgage generally improves your assessed servicing, while stretching a loan back out to 30 years or adding a large cash-out can reduce future capacity. If a purchase is on the horizon, tell us early so the refinance is structured with that next step in mind.

Once a year. Lender pricing drifts, discounts you negotiated get quietly overtaken by what new customers are offered, and your equity position changes as the balance falls and the property value moves. An annual review takes minutes and is the difference between a loan that stays competitive and one that slowly costs you more each year.