What staying put is really costing you, and how to fix it after the RBA’s November decision

Summary:

If your home loan has sat on the same rate for a few years, loyalty could be costing you. This post shows you how to check, and how we fix it without you doing the running around.

• Older loans often sit well above the rates new customers are offered at the same bank, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has put real dollar figures on that gap.
• Banks rarely hand over their sharpest rate until you look ready to leave, which is the quiet reason a polite phone call so often gets nowhere.
• Requesting a discharge authority is the moment the conversation changes, and part of our job is making that request for you.
• One client we refinanced cut her monthly outgoings by almost $4,000, after two other brokers had already told her no.
• Repricing, refinancing or staying put are all on the table, and the right answer depends on your fees and your goals, not a blanket rule.

Plenty of homeowners set up a mortgage, get on with life, and never look at the rate again. That is completely normal, and it is also where the cost creeps in. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) handed down its latest rate decision on 3 November 2026. A rate call is the moment most people finally ask whether their loan still stacks up. This post walks through what sitting still can cost you, why your bank stays quiet, and how a refinance home loan review puts you back in control.

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What is the loyalty tax actually costing you?

The loyalty tax is the gap between the rate a bank offers new customers and the rate it keeps charging you. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) put numbers on it. Loans three to five years old sat about 0.58 of a percentage point, or 58 basis points, above the average new loan. On a $250,000 loan, that was more than $1,400 in extra interest in year one.

The older the loan, the wider the gap tends to get. The ACCC found loans more than ten years old were paying around 1.04 percentage points above the new-loan average. That extra interest topped $17,000 over the remaining term on the same $250,000 loan, according to the ACCC’s Home Loan Price Inquiry final report of 5 December 2020.

Here is the part most people miss. Just because a bank advertises a lower rate for new customers does not mean it will offer it to you. In our experience it weighs your time in the loan, your equity, your savings history, your living expenses and your credit profile before it reprices anything. That is true even when you have paid on time for years. That is why checking where your rate sits, and comparing it against the wider market, matters more than loyalty. It is the whole point of refinancing your home loan with someone who compares the market for you.

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Why won’t your bank just give you its best rate?

Your bank usually will not give you its sharpest rate until it believes you are serious about leaving. That is not a conspiracy. It is simply how retention works, with the best pricing held back for customers who look ready to move. The RBA has observed the same pattern, with newer loans typically priced below older ones for similar borrowers.

We see this constantly. In practice, a customer asks their bank for a better rate for months and gets nowhere. Then we find them a genuinely better deal elsewhere, and the moment we request the paperwork to move the loan, the old bank suddenly becomes active. Most customers find that insulting, and understandably so.

The discharge-authority leverage we use

A discharge authority is the form that tells your current lender you are moving the loan to someone else. It is also the single most powerful piece of leverage you hold. You can ask your lender for a better rate yourself, and sometimes that works. Often, though, they will not respond until that form lands on their desk, because it tells them you have already lined up your next lender. Part of our service is contacting your current lender for you and negotiating a reprice. In some cases we let them know we have found a better deal and are ready to move you.

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What does going into bat for you actually get back?

Numbers on a page are one thing. A real outcome is easier to picture. A while ago a client came to us wanting to refinance and roll some other debts into her home loan. Part of her income was earned overseas, and two brokers before us had already declined her because of it. We workshopped her file with several lenders and found one that would lend to 90% of the property value and accept that overseas income. The loan was approved and settled, and it reduced her monthly outgoings by almost $4,000.

That figure was specific to her situation. It combined a sharper rate with rolling several separate repayments into one, so it is not what a straightforward rate switch looks like. What it shows is the value of matching a tricky file to the one lender that will say yes, after others have said no.

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Reprice, refinance or stay: getting the best outcome without you lifting a finger

You have three realistic options, and the best one depends on your loan, not a rule of thumb. We can push your current bank to reprice, we can move you to a better lender, or we can confirm that staying put is genuinely your best call. Our job is to work out which, compare the market, and handle the paperwork either way. You do not have to make the calls or chase the forms.

When we compare, we assess all of your income and expenses. We look for every legitimate way to make the numbers work, including going to the lender whose policy actually fits you. Some lenders will even do a dollar-for-dollar refinance, replacing your loan with a lower repayment, provided you have missed no payments.

Switching is not free, and a good broker says so. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Moneysmart suggests you weigh the cost of changing loans against the interest you would save. That is the break-even test for switching home loans, and the costs it counts include discharge fees and new loan setup fees. On some loans the saving clears those costs quickly. On others it does not, and we will tell you plainly if staying is the better move.

Our refinance calculator can help give you an early idea, and a free home loan health check puts a real answer next to the estimate.

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What does the 3 November RBA decision mean for your repayments?

On 3 November 2026 the Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate to 4.85%. Whether that flows through to your repayments depends on your lender and your loan type, because lenders set their own rates. A rate decision is a sensible prompt to check where your loan sits. It is not, on its own, a reason to panic or to rush.

If your rate has not been looked at since you set the loan up, this is a good moment to compare it against what the market is offering today. Knowing your number is the move that pays, whatever the cash rate does next.

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Ready to find out what you are really paying?

You do not have to figure this out alone, and you do not need to lift a finger on the paperwork. Give our friendly team on the Sunshine Coast a call on 07 3505 3099, or get started online. We will handle the heavy lifting: comparing lenders, pushing for a reprice where it stacks up, and showing you honestly whether moving is worth it. You may be eligible for a sharper deal than the one you are on, and a quick chat costs nothing and will not affect your credit score.

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