How Often Should I Review or Refinance My Home Loan?
Those are 2 different questions with 2 different answers, and merging them is how people end up either never looking or switching for the sake of switching. Looking is free. Moving is not. Most advice in this area quietly assumes the opposite.
The short answer
Review annually once the loan is a few years old, and immediately whenever something changes. Refinance only when there is a specific reason, which for most borrowers is far less often than annually. The distinction matters because a review costs a phone call and leaves no trace, while a refinance costs money, generates a credit enquiry and can quietly reset your loan term. The ACCC recommended in its final report to the Treasurer in November 2020 that lenders be required to prompt borrowers with variable rate loans originated 3 or more years ago on an annual basis. That was a recommendation to government rather than a rule, and we cannot confirm it was ever implemented, so do not wait to be prompted by anyone. And be comfortable with the most common correct outcome of a review, which is that you do nothing.
Two questions wearing the same coat
Ask 10 brokers how often you should refinance and you will get numbers. Every 2 years. Every 3. Whenever your fixed term ends. The numbers sound like expertise and are almost always habit, because none of them are derived from anything, and the person offering one has usually not seen your loan.
The confusion is that 2 different activities are being described by one question.
| A review | A refinance | |
|---|---|---|
| What it involves | A conversation and a comparison | An application, an assessment, a settlement |
| What it costs | Time | Fees, and sometimes a great deal more |
| Credit enquiry | No | Yes |
| Can reset your term | No | Yes, and usually by default |
| Sensible frequency | Regularly | When there is a reason |
Once you separate them, the answer stops being a number and becomes a rule: look often, act rarely. Everything below is about what makes acting justified.
Where the only defensible interval comes from
There is one number in this area that is not invented, and it is worth knowing exactly where it came from and what it is worth.
The Treasurer directed the ACCC to inquire into home loan pricing in October 2019. The final report, which focused on impediments to borrowers switching lenders, was provided to the Treasurer on 25 November 2020 and published on 5 December 2020. It recommended that all lenders be required to give borrowers with variable rate loans originated 3 or more years ago an annual prompt encouraging them to consider whether they could benefit from switching lenders or products. The report also observed that, as at December 2019, almost half of all variable rate loans had been originated at least 4 years earlier.
So the 3 year mark is where a competition regulator, having examined the market, judged that inattention starts to cost borrowers money, and annual is the interval it landed on. That is a firmer footing than any broker’s rule of thumb.
But here is the thing about inquiry recommendations that most coverage skips: a recommendation in a report to the Treasurer is advice to government. It binds nobody. It obliges no lender to do anything unless and until government implements it.
We have not been able to confirm that this one was implemented, and the ACCC records the inquiry itself as finalised. We are not going to assert either way. The practical consequence is the same regardless, and it is the only conclusion worth drawing: do not build your plans around being prompted by anyone. Put the reminder in your own calendar.
Note also what the recommendation was for. It is a prompt to look, not an instruction to move. Which is the distinction this whole article turns on.
The events that should start a review
A calendar is a poor trigger because it fires when nothing has happened. Events are better, because they fire when something has.
Loan events. A fixed rate period approaching its end. An interest only period approaching its end, which is the more disruptive of the 2 because the repayment change at the switch to principal and interest is usually larger than anything a rate movement does. The end of an introductory or discounted period, if your loan had one.
Income events. A material change in income in either direction. A move from employment into self-employment, which changes how your income is assessed rather than how much of it there is, and is covered in why banks reject self-employed borrowers. The end of parental leave. A second income starting or stopping.
Household events. Separation. A new dependant. A partner joining or leaving the loan. These change both what you can service and what the loan needs to do.
Property events. A significant change in what the property is worth, which matters because it can move you across an equity threshold, and because valuation is the one variable in the whole exercise that nobody involved can control or predict.
Plans. Renovating, buying an investment property, consolidating debts, or accessing equity. Each of these is a reason to look at the loan as a structure rather than as a rate.
And simple elapsed time. If nothing on that list has happened and you have not looked in several years, that is itself the trigger. It is the ACCC’s point, and it is the most common one.
The one date that is genuinely a deadline
Most of this article argues against calendar rules. Here is the exception.
When a fixed rate period ends, the loan reverts to whatever the contract provides, and the change happens on a specific date whether you have prepared or not. Unlike almost everything else in lending, this one has a date on it and the date is knowable in advance.
Do not rely on being reminded. Many lenders send a notification before a fixed period ends, and it is good practice. But we searched the text of the 2025 Banking Code of Practice, in effect from 28 February 2025, and found no provision dealing with fixed rate expiry at all. The words fixed and variable do not appear in what we searched.
What the Code does do is put the obligation somewhere else, and this is the useful part. It requires that the terms and conditions you were given clearly set out any interest rate that applies, how and when different interest rates may apply, the method by which interest is calculated, and how the bank may change interest and how it will notify you of changes. In other words the Code’s answer to this question is that the answer is in your contract.
So that is the document to check, and it is worth checking it now rather than 6 weeks out. Put the expiry date in your own calendar with a reminder 6 to 8 weeks before.
Six to eight weeks is not arbitrary. It is roughly the amount of time in which you can still have a real conversation, get an assessment done and arrange an alternative if you want one. Two weeks out, your options narrow to whatever can be organised quickly. On the day, you have no options at all, only an outcome. Our guide to how long approval actually takes covers what consumes that time.
The same logic applies to an interest only period ending, and with more force, because the repayment change is usually larger.
Not sure whether yours is worth a look?
Book a free 15 minute call. Bring your rate, your balance, your remaining term and whether any part is fixed. We will tell you whether there is anything worth pursuing, and we will tell you plainly when there is not. No application, no credit enquiry, no obligation.
Reviewing without leaving
A review does not have to end at another lender, and the first move is usually the cheapest one available: ask your current lender to look at your pricing.
It costs nothing. There is no application, no valuation, no credit enquiry and no paperwork. If the answer is no you have lost a phone call. Whether a lender will adjust anything is entirely at their discretion and depends on their policy, your loan and your circumstances, so nobody, including us, can tell you what will happen.
What makes the conversation more productive is knowing what you would actually do if the answer is no. A request backed by a genuine alternative is a different conversation from a request that is not, and you can only have the first version if you have done the comparison first.
Worth saying plainly, since we are a broker saying it. If your existing lender resolves it, that is a good outcome and you should take it. We would rather be the reason you had a productive conversation with your own bank than the reason you moved for no gain. A page like this that only ever concluded “switch” would not be worth reading.
Why most reviews should end in nothing
This is the part that separates a review from a sales process, so it is worth being direct about it.
A review that ends in no action is not a wasted review. It is the most common correct outcome, for reasons that have nothing to do with apathy.
- The gap is not big enough to survive the costs. Small margins take a long time to recover, and we work that arithmetic through in how much refinancing actually saves.
- You would not qualify at the moment. Serviceability is assessed with a buffer above the actual rate, and circumstances change. Finding that out in a 15 minute conversation, rather than through a declined application, is a good result.
- A break cost or fresh mortgage insurance would swallow the benefit. Both are real and both are frequently decisive. Break costs specifically are covered in how break costs are actually calculated.
- The loan is doing its job. Sometimes the structure fits, the pricing is reasonable, and there is nothing to fix. That is allowed.
The value of the review in all 4 cases is the same: you now know, and you can stop wondering for another year. Certainty is the product. Movement is only sometimes the product.
If every review you have ever had concluded that you should refinance, you were not being reviewed. You were being sold to.
If the buffer is what stops you
The second item on that list deserves more than a line, because it is the one people find most demoralising and the one where there is actually something to ask about.
Lenders assess your capacity at the actual rate plus a serviceability buffer, which APRA has maintained at 3 percentage points. The uncomfortable consequence is that a borrower who has been paying an existing loan without difficulty for years can fail the assessment for a smaller loan at a lower rate, because the test is applied to the new loan rather than to their demonstrated conduct.
APRA has acknowledged this directly. In a letter to banks in June 2023, written when rates were rising, it noted that some borrowers seeking to refinance with another lender may no longer meet standard loan criteria, for reasons including the buffer, reduced equity following price declines, and changes in personal circumstances, and said it was important that such loans be assessed case by case.
That letter also describes the pathway, which is the part almost nobody mentions. Banks may write an exception to policy, meaning a loan approved outside standard criteria, provided exceptions are managed prudently and kept limited. APRA noted that for a borrower seeking to refinance, a bank could take into account additional indicators of repayment capacity beyond the standard serviceability test, and gave past repayment behaviour as the example.
Two cautions, because this is easy to over-read. Exceptions are rationed rather than available on request: APRA observed that historically they have accounted for a small share of total housing lending, between 2 and 3 per cent, and that banks writing large volumes attract heightened supervisory attention. And that letter describes conditions in mid 2023, which are not today’s conditions. It is not a promise, and no broker can obtain one for you.
What it is, is a real thing to ask about rather than a closed door. If a refinance that plainly improves your position is blocked by the buffer alone and your repayment history is clean, that is a conversation worth having explicitly rather than accepting the first automated no.
What reviewing too often costs
The opposite failure is real too, and it is less discussed because it looks like diligence.
Credit enquiries accumulate. Each application generates an enquiry recorded on your credit report. Several in a short window can be read unfavourably by an assessor, who cannot see from the file whether you were shopping carefully or being declined repeatedly. This is a reason to compare before applying rather than to apply in order to compare.
Costs repeat. Discharge and registration fees, lender establishment charges, and the time involved. Individually modest. Repeated every couple of years, less so.
The term keeps restarting. This is the expensive one, and it is invisible while it happens. Unless you specifically ask for the remaining term, a new loan is commonly written over a fresh full term. A borrower who refinances every 3 years, each time onto a new 30 year loan, can spend 20 years paying diligently and never get materially closer to the end. Each individual transaction looked like an improvement.
The rule that prevents this. Every time you refinance, ask for the loan to be written over your remaining term rather than a fresh full one, and ask before documents are issued. If that is not available, set your repayment back to what you were paying before. Either one costs you nothing and prevents the single most expensive thing that happens in an ordinary refinance.
A cadence you can actually defend
Putting it together, without pretending it is a formula.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Years 1 to 2 of a new loan | Nothing, unless something changes. The loan was arranged recently and switching costs would not have been recovered. |
| From year 3 onwards | An annual look. This is where the ACCC drew its line, and where inattention starts to cost. |
| 6 to 8 weeks before a fixed or interest only period ends | A real review, not a glance. This is the one genuine deadline. |
| Whenever income, household, property or plans change | A review, regardless of when the last one was. |
| Acting on any of the above | Only where there is a specific reason, and only after checking you would qualify. |
For a lot of people that produces 1 or 2 refinances across the life of a loan and a handful of reviews that correctly conclude nothing. That is not underachievement. That is what the process looks like when it is working.
One thing not to assume
Best Interests Duty applies to mortgage brokers in relation to the credit assistance provided, at the time it is provided. It is not an ongoing obligation to monitor your loan for the rest of its life. Some brokers run periodic reviews as a matter of practice and some do not. It is a fair question to ask directly rather than to assume, and it is worth asking of whoever arranged your current loan. If you are considering moving to a different broker, changing brokers covers how that works.
Read Intellect Finance’s Google reviews
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These reviews reflect other clients’ experiences. They are not a promise of any particular outcome for your loan, which will always depend on your circumstances and the lender’s assessment.
Frequently Asked
Loan Review Questions
The questions about timing, rather than about numbers.
How often should I review my home loan?
A review costs a phone call and no paperwork, so annually is a reasonable default once a loan is a few years old, plus whenever something changes. The ACCC’s home loan price inquiry final report, provided to the Treasurer in November 2020, recommended that lenders be required to give borrowers with variable rate loans originated 3 or more years ago an annual prompt to consider switching. That was a recommendation to government rather than a rule, and we cannot confirm it was implemented, so set your own reminder. Reviewing is not the same as acting, and a review concluding you should stay put is a successful review.
How often should I refinance?
When there is a specific reason, which for most borrowers is far less often than annually. A refinance costs money, generates a credit enquiry and can reset your loan term, so it needs a justification each time rather than a schedule. Common genuine reasons are a fixed or interest only period ending, a material change in income or household, accessing equity for a purpose, or a pricing gap large enough to recover the switching costs within a sensible period.
Is it bad to refinance too often?
It can be, and the damage is mostly invisible while it happens. Each application leaves a credit enquiry, the fees repeat, and most importantly a new loan is commonly written over a fresh full term unless you ask otherwise. Refinancing every few years onto a new 30 year term can mean paying diligently for 2 decades without getting materially closer to the end. Ask for your remaining term each time, before documents are issued.
Will my bank tell me when my fixed rate ends?
Many lenders do as a matter of practice, but do not rely on it. We searched the 2025 Banking Code of Practice, in effect from 28 February 2025, and found no provision dealing with fixed rate expiry. What the Code does require is that your terms and conditions set out any interest rate that applies, how and when different rates may apply, and how the bank will notify you of changes. So your loan contract is the document that governs what happens at expiry. Read it, and put the date in your own calendar with a reminder 6 to 8 weeks out.
What should trigger a home loan review?
A fixed or interest only period approaching its end, a material change in income in either direction, a move into self-employment, separation or a change in who is on the loan, a significant change in what the property is worth, or plans involving the loan such as renovating, investing or consolidating debt. And simple elapsed time: if none of those has happened and you have not looked in several years, that is itself the trigger.
Can I ask my current lender for a lower rate instead of refinancing?
Yes, and it is usually the cheapest first move. There is no application, no valuation and no credit enquiry, so the downside is a phone call. Whether the lender adjusts anything is entirely at their discretion and nobody can tell you in advance what will happen. The conversation goes better if you already know what you would do if the answer is no, which means doing the comparison first.
What if I cannot refinance because of the serviceability buffer?
It is worth asking about an exception to policy rather than accepting the first no. APRA acknowledged in a June 2023 letter to banks that some borrowers seeking to refinance may no longer meet standard criteria, and that banks may approve loans outside standard criteria where exceptions are managed prudently and kept limited, taking into account additional indicators of repayment capacity such as past repayment behaviour. Be realistic though: APRA noted such exceptions have historically been only 2 to 3 per cent of housing lending, and no broker can obtain one for you.
Does my mortgage broker review my loan automatically?
Not necessarily. Best Interests Duty attaches to the credit assistance provided at the time it is provided; it is not an ongoing obligation to monitor your loan after settlement. Some brokers run periodic reviews as a matter of practice and some do not. Ask whoever arranged your current loan directly rather than assuming, since the assumption is what produces loans nobody has looked at in 6 years.
What actually happens in a home loan review?
A conversation. Confirming what you currently have, establishing what has changed, working out whether the loan would still be arranged the same way today, and checking whether you would qualify before anyone calculates a saving. It does not involve an application or a credit enquiry unless and until you decide it should. If it does involve one at the outset, that is not a review.
Is a review that changes nothing a waste of time?
No, it is the most common correct outcome. The gap may not survive the switching costs, you may not qualify at the moment, a break cost or fresh mortgage insurance may swallow the benefit, or the loan may simply be doing its job. In all 4 cases the product is certainty: you now know, and you can stop wondering for another year. If every review you have ever had concluded that you should refinance, you were being sold to rather than reviewed.
The honest bottom line
Review annually from about year 3, and immediately when something in your life or your loan changes. Refinance when there is a reason, and not otherwise.
The 2 failures are symmetrical and both are common. Never looking costs you quietly over years. Moving every time you look costs you in fees, in enquiries, and most of all in a loan term that keeps starting again. The people who do best at this look regularly and act rarely, which is the opposite of what both inertia and salesmanship push you toward.
And when you do look, be genuinely willing to conclude nothing. If that is never the conclusion, the review was not a review.
Joseph Sukkar
Joseph has worked in Australian finance for more than 25 years and has run Intellect Finance from central Penrith since 2005. A meaningful share of loan reviews conducted properly end with a recommendation to stay where you are, which is a slower business model and the reason the reviews are worth having. Intellect Finance charges clients no fee on any loan type. More about the team.
Sources
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Home loan price inquiry final report, provided to the Treasurer on 25 November 2020 and published 5 December 2020, for the recommendation that lenders be required to prompt borrowers with variable rate loans originated 3 or more years ago on an annual basis, and for the observation about the age of variable rate loans as at December 2019. The ACCC records the inquiry as finalised. We have not been able to confirm whether the recommendation was implemented and make no claim either way. accc.gov.au
Australian Banking Association, Banking Code of Practice, in effect from 28 February 2025, for the requirement that terms and conditions clearly set out any interest rate that applies, how and when different interest rates may apply, the method by which interest is calculated, and how the bank may change interest and will notify you of changes. We searched the Code and found no provision dealing with fixed rate expiry. That is a statement about what we found on review rather than a legal opinion. ausbanking.org.au
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Housing lending standards: reinforcing guidance on exceptions, letter to all authorised deposit-taking institutions, 9 June 2023, for the 3 per cent minimum serviceability buffer, the acknowledgement that some borrowers seeking to refinance with another lender may no longer meet standard loan criteria, the availability of exceptions to policy where managed prudently and limited, the example of past repayment behaviour as an additional indicator of repayment capacity on a refinance, and the observation that serviceability policy exceptions have historically accounted for between 2 and 3 per cent of total housing lending. apra.gov.au
Important disclosures, general advice warning and licensing
General information only. This article is general information only and does not constitute financial, credit, legal, investment or tax advice. It does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account, and it is not a recommendation to refinance, to stay with your current lender, or to enter into any credit contract. Before acting on any information here you should obtain advice from appropriately qualified professionals.
No rate claims. This page publishes no interest rates, comparison rates or pricing comparisons between lenders or products. Any rate should be confirmed in writing against an actual offer, and nothing here predicts the direction of interest rates.
About the ACCC material. The recommendation and the observation about loan ages are drawn from the ACCC’s home loan price inquiry final report, provided to the Treasurer on 25 November 2020 and published on 5 December 2020. A recommendation in an inquiry report is advice to government and does not itself impose any obligation on lenders. We have not been able to confirm whether this recommendation was implemented and we make no claim either way. The report describes market conditions as they stood at that time, which differ from current conditions.
About the Banking Code reference. We searched the text of the Banking Code of Practice in effect from 28 February 2025 and did not locate any provision dealing with fixed rate expiry or requiring notification before a fixed rate period ends. That is a statement about what we found on review, not a legal opinion, and codes are amended over time. The disclosure requirements described are summarised in general terms rather than reproduced. Your loan contract governs what happens at expiry, and your lender or your solicitor is the right source on your own agreement.
About the APRA material. The APRA letter cited was published on 9 June 2023 and describes conditions and supervisory expectations as at that date, in an environment of rising interest rates, which differs from current conditions. It sets out prudential expectations placed on lenders and creates no entitlement for any borrower. An exception to policy is entirely at a lender’s discretion, is required to be prudently managed and limited in volume, and cannot be obtained or influenced by a broker. Nothing here should be read as a suggestion that any borrower is entitled to be assessed outside a lender’s standard criteria.
Approval and pricing are never guaranteed. All lending is subject to lender assessment, credit criteria, valuation and lender policy, which vary between lenders and change without notice. Whether an existing lender will adjust pricing on request is entirely at that lender’s discretion. No broker can guarantee approval, a rate, a repricing outcome, an exception to policy, a valuation outcome or a timeframe.
Credit reporting. Credit applications are recorded on your credit report. This page does not state how long that information is retained or how any particular lender or credit reporting body treats it, because those are matters for the credit reporting body and the lender concerned. You can obtain your own credit report from the credit reporting bodies directly.
Best Interests Duty. Best Interests Duty applies to mortgage brokers in relation to the credit assistance they provide, at the time it is provided. Nothing on this page should be read as a representation that any broker, including us, has an ongoing legal obligation to monitor a loan after settlement.
Other professionals. Tax treatment to your accountant or registered tax agent. Contracts, duty and title to your solicitor or conveyancer. Investment questions to a licensed financial adviser. Intellect Finance holds a credit licence and does not provide financial product advice. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, free and independent financial counselling is available through the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.
About the reviews shown. The reviews displayed on this page are genuine reviews published by clients on Intellect Finance’s Google Business Profile, shown live via a third-party reviews widget. They reflect those individuals’ own experiences and are not a promise of any particular outcome.
What we charge you. Nothing, on any loan type. No arrangement fee for residential, commercial, corporate, asset, SMSF or personal lending, no fee for complex or specialist lending, and no clawback recovery fee if a loan is discharged early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing in our Credit Guide before we provide credit assistance.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd holds Australian Credit Licence 390611 and is a member of the MFAA and AFCA. Lending criteria, fees and terms apply. Article checked 10 September 2026.
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