Free for Australian homeowners
On a $600,000 loan that gap is about $3,060 a year in interest. Check your own loan in about a minute: no account, and your numbers never leave your browser.
Independent of every lender. Ratey re-checks members' loans every month.
the gap: about 51 basis points
Benchmarks are point in time published figures, listed with every other source in the sources ledger below.
The instant check
Enter four numbers. Ratey compares your loan against published market figures and pins your rate to the same scale you saw at the top of the page. Everything runs right here, and your numbers stay in your browser.
Your result appears here, pinned against the published benchmarks cited below.
Benchmarks used by this calculator: average rate on outstanding owner-occupier loans 6.20% (Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F6, data to 31 May 2026, retrieved 26 July 2026); lowest advertised variable rate 5.69% (Canstar, Home Loan Comparison, lowest variable rates table dated 2 July 2026, retrieved 26 July 2026); existing fixed owner-occupier loans with three years or less remaining 5.53% and new fixed loans of the same term 6.07% (Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F6, data to 31 May 2026). A variable loan is compared with the first two figures. A fixed loan is compared with the last two, because a fixed rate cannot move to a variable rate without breaking the term.
Simple interest on your current balance over twelve months. It leaves out fees, offset and redraw benefits, break costs, and your credit profile. Advertised rates depend on lender criteria, so treat the comparison as a guide.
General information only. Licensed advice comes from licensed advisers, and our Terms of Service set out plainly what Ratey is and how referral introductions work.
The market, today
6.20%
Average rate on outstanding owner-occupier home loans, May 2026
Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F64.35%
RBA cash rate target, June 2026, up from 3.60% in January 2026
Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F1.1The gap between the first two numbers is about 51 basis points. On a $600,000 loan that is real money, and it is the gap the instant check above grades your loan against. The third number explains why a check goes stale: the cash rate climbed 75 basis points over five months, so a rate that looked sharp in January deserves a fresh look by winter.
Every figure on this page carries its source beside it, and the full list sits in the sources ledger further down.
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The shelf life problem
Every home loan health check on offer in Australia is an appointment. A bank arranges one, a broker books one, a calculator hands you a number and moves on. Each is accurate on the day it happens, and the market keeps moving the day after. A rate left alone drifts relative to the market from the day you sign, and it drifts fastest when the market is moving. Ratey's difference is simple: the check repeats, every month, on its own.
| Jan 2026 | Junnow |
|---|---|
| 3.60 | 4.35 |
| opening | +75 bp over 5 mo |
The cash rate target, as published in the RBA's workbook: up 75 basis points over five months.1
The standard advice says review your mortgage once a year, and right now that is a floor rather than a target. The cash rate target went from 3.60% in January 2026 to 4.35% in June 2026,1 so a review done in January was describing a different market by winter, and the months in between are exactly when the gaps open.
1 Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F1.1, data to 30 June 2026, retrieved 26 July 2026.
Owner-occupiers refinanced $42.9 billion of housing loans with a different lender in the March quarter 2026, up 0.1% on the December quarter.2 That is a steady march of people who looked at their loan and decided they could do better. The people who move are the people who noticed. Ratey's job is the noticing.
2 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Lending Indicators, March Quarter 2026, released 13 May 2026.
You can run the instant check above with numbers you already know, or create a free account and let Ratey take over the re-checking from today.
The seven point check
A rate on its own tells you very little. These are the seven things worth checking, and what Ratey watches for you.
The headline number, compared against both the average rate on outstanding loans and the sharpest advertised rate on the market. Ratey watches it against more than 35 Australian lenders. One thing worth knowing: the comparison rate includes fees and can differ meaningfully from the headline rate a lender advertises, so always look at both before you judge a deal.
Annual package fees, monthly account keeping fees, offset account fees. Commonwealth Bank's Wealth Package, to take one example, costs $395 a year, and a fee that size quietly cancels out a small rate win. Plenty of borrowers keep paying for a package whose perks they stopped using years ago. Ask your lender what you are paying each year and exactly what it buys you.
Source: Commonwealth Bank, Home Loan Wealth Package (fee current as at 26 July 2026).
Refinancing usually restarts the clock at 30 years. That lowers the monthly repayment and raises the total interest you pay over the life of the loan. Keeping your original end date is a choice you have to ask for, and almost nobody does. A health check should always look at the years remaining, not just the rate.
Principal and interest, or interest only. Interest only lowers the payment now and raises the total cost later, because the debt itself is not shrinking. When an interest only period ends, the loan reverts to principal and interest and the repayment steps up sharply. Know your revert date before it knows you.
An offset account only helps if there is money sitting in it. Redraw is not the same thing: it is your extra repayments held by the lender, and access is not always guaranteed. If you are paying a package fee for an offset you never use, that is a cost with no benefit. Check whether the feature is earning its keep.
Your property value minus what you owe is your equity, and the loan as a share of the value is your LVR. Lenders price by LVR band, and crossing 80% is usually the line between paying lenders mortgage insurance and not. Your LVR moves every month, in both directions, which is why Ratey tracks it instead of asking you to.
A fixed rate protects you from moves in both directions, and it carries break costs if you leave early. Variable moves with the market. Splitting the loan hedges between the two. What suited you three years ago may not suit you now, and the end of a fixed term is the single most expensive moment to be asleep at the wheel.
Test the first of these right now with the instant health check, and the FAQ below covers the rest in plain language. If you would rather work through it yourself, how to review your own home loan is the same seven checks written as a ten minute job, and what an offset account is covers the feature most often paid for and least often used.
Before you refinance
Can I ask my bank for a lower interest rate? Yes, and the field is wide open: Finder reported in June 2026 that 37% of Australians say they have never asked their lender for a better deal.3
3 Finder, research on missed mortgage savings, 30 June 2026.
Canstar's research tells the same story from another angle: just 6% of borrowers switched lender in the past 12 months, and 52% have stayed with their first provider the whole way through.4
4 Canstar, consumer research on the loyalty tax, 15 June 2026.
Asking for a reprice is free, takes one phone call, and leaves the loan exactly where it is: your term keeps its end date, your credit file stays as it was, and every switching cost stays in your pocket. It is the highest-return ten minutes in personal finance, and the people who are paid when you refinance are the quietest about it.
Switching has real costs: a discharge fee from the outgoing lender, application and settlement fees at the new one, lenders mortgage insurance if your LVR is above 80%, break costs if you are leaving a fixed loan, and a loan term that usually resets to 30 years. If the gap is wide enough to clear all of that, switching wins. The $42.9 billion of owner-occupier refinancing in the March quarter 20262 says plenty of Australians are doing exactly that maths.
Work out your gap first, then make the call. If you decide you want professional help, our Terms explain how broker introductions work, including the referral fee we may receive.
2 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Lending Indicators, March Quarter 2026, released 13 May 2026.
Loyalty, measured
The loyalty tax is the gap between what a lender offers a new customer and what it keeps charging an existing one. Here is the caveat almost nobody selling you a refinance will print: RBA figures for May 2026 put the average rate on outstanding owner-occupier loans and the average rate on new owner-occupier loans within 2 basis points of each other.5 On the aggregate, the gap this month is 2 basis points at most.
5 Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F6, data to 31 May 2026, retrieved 26 July 2026.
The aggregate hides loan age, and loan age is where the tax lives. In December 2020 the ACCC found that borrowers with home loans more than ten years old were paying on average about 104 basis points more than the average rate on new loans, and that loans three to five years old paid about 58 basis points more.6
The same inquiry put a dollar figure on it: a $250,000 loan aged three to five years could save more than $1,400 in interest in the first year, and more than $17,000 over the remaining term, by moving to the average new loan rate.6
6 ACCC, Home Loan Price Inquiry, 5 December 2020.
The honest version is short. The older your loan, the more likely it is that nobody has looked at it lately, including you. Age is the variable to watch, and watching is the whole product.
Check where your loan sits, then start with one phone call. Every figure above is listed in the sources ledger, and the loyalty tax in full sets out the ACCC findings by loan age.
The roll-off
When a fixed term ends you roll onto your lender's revert rate, which is typically well above what the same lender advertises to new customers. It happens automatically. Nobody rings you.
The RBA's May 2026 figures show how far pricing moved while borrowers were fixed: existing fixed owner-occupier loans with three years or less remaining averaged 5.53%, while new fixed loans of the same term were being written at 6.07%.5 Even re-fixing at that market average would mean a step-up of about 54 basis points, before any revert rate enters the picture.
The playbook is simple. Start comparing about ninety days before expiry. Ask your current lender what they will offer you on the roll-off. Get it in writing before the fixed term ends, so the decision stays yours instead of defaulting to the revert rate.
Tell Ratey your expiry date and it counts the days down while the monthly market check keeps running in the background. If you want a number today, the instant check above takes your expiry date too, or set up the countdown in a free account. The full roll-off playbook walks through the eight weeks before the term ends.
5 Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F6, data to 31 May 2026, retrieved 26 July 2026.
Asset, meet debt
The property portals track the asset and ignore the debt. Lenders track the debt and ignore the asset. Your actual position is the two together, and it changes every month.
Equity is your property's current value minus what you still owe. Usable equity is normally calculated at 80% of your property's value minus the loan balance, because most lenders price past 80% with lenders mortgage insurance attached. Both numbers move every month, from two directions at once: your repayments and the market.
If you want the figures now rather than an account, the home equity calculator and the LVR calculator work both out from the same two numbers, and lenders mortgage insurance explained covers why the 80% line is where it is.
Ratey uses an automated valuation estimate, refreshed monthly. It is an estimate, and a lender will always run its own valuation before approving anything, so treat it as a well-informed starting point.
The market itself is the reason the refresh matters. Cotality's national Home Value Index fell 0.4% in June 2026, the largest month-on-month fall since December 2022. Values were down 0.7% over the June quarter but still up 7.3% year on year, with a national median dwelling value of $937,722.7
Values falling while rates rise can push your LVR back over a pricing tier while you are busy living your life. That is exactly the kind of change a once-a-year check misses, which is why LVR sits in the seven-point checklist and in the instant check. How property value estimates work covers what these models can and cannot see.
7 Cotality, Home Value Index, July 2026 release, released 1 July 2026, reporting June 2026 data.
The routine
Step one
Your lender, balance, rate, loan type and your property address. About two minutes with numbers you already know, and you are set up before the kettle boils. Create your free account to start.
Step two
Ratey compares your loan against more than 35 Australian lenders, refreshes your property value and your LVR, and counts down your fixed rate expiry, month after month, whether or not you remember it exists.
Step three
A sharper rate, a fixed term approaching its end, a shift in your equity position. One useful message when it matters, and quiet the rest of the time.
Want a number first? The instant check runs with four numbers, straight from this page.
Where we stand
Ratey is a watch service, plainly and only that. Lending stays with lenders, broking stays with brokers, and licensed advice stays with licensed advisers. Our Terms of Service say in plain words what the product is.
Every rate you see is a published rate, chosen on the numbers alone. Your dashboard reads the same whoever you bank with, because Ratey answers to you.
Ratey is free to use. Our Terms disclose that if you ask to be introduced to a mortgage broker or another service provider, we may receive a referral fee for that introduction. Asking is optional, and your dashboard reads the same either way.
Work it out yourself
Plain-language guides and calculators that run in your browser. Every figure carries its source, and none of it needs an account.
Straight answers
A review of your existing mortgage against what lenders are offering right now. It covers your interest rate, fees, loan term, repayment type and your loan to value ratio, then tells you whether staying put still makes sense. Most are done once, by a broker or a bank. Ratey re-runs one on your loan every month, for free.
At least once a year, and immediately whenever something changes: a cash rate move, a fixed rate ending, a shift in your property value, or a change in your income. The RBA cash rate went from 3.60% in January 2026 to 4.35% in June 2026, so a review from last year is already describing a different market.
You keep paying whatever your lender decides to charge. The ACCC found in 2020 that borrowers with loans more than ten years old were paying around 104 basis points more than the average new loan rate, and that a $250,000 loan aged three to five years could cost more than $17,000 extra over its remaining term.
Compare it to two reference points. The RBA put the average rate on outstanding owner-occupier loans at 6.2% in May 2026. Canstar's comparison table listed a lowest advertised variable of 5.69%, dated 2 July 2026. If your rate sits well above the average, it is worth a phone call. Ratey checks this against more than 35 lenders for you.
There is no single good rate, only a good rate for your loan size, your LVR and your loan type. As a benchmark, the average outstanding owner-occupier rate was 6.2% in May 2026 according to the RBA, while the sharpest advertised variable on Canstar's comparison table was 5.69%, dated 2 July 2026.
Yes. It is called a reprice and it costs nothing. Call your lender's retention or pricing team, quote a lower advertised rate from a comparable lender, and ask them to match it. Finder reported in June 2026 that 37% of Australians have never asked. A reprice does not restart your loan term or trigger discharge fees.
It is the gap between what new borrowers are offered and what long-standing customers keep paying. It is real, but it is not constant. RBA data for May 2026 shows average outstanding and new owner-occupier rates within 2 basis points of each other, so the aggregate gap this month is 2 basis points at most. The ACCC's 2020 finding applied to loans more than ten years old, so loan age matters more than the average.
You roll onto your lender's revert rate, which is usually well above what they advertise to new customers. For scale, RBA figures for May 2026 show existing fixed loans with three years or less to run averaging 5.53%, while new fixed loans of the same term were written at 6.07%, so even re-fixing costs more. Start comparing about ninety days before expiry.
Equity is your property's current value minus what you still owe. It matters because lenders price by loan to value ratio. Crossing 80% LVR is usually the difference between paying lenders mortgage insurance and not, and many lenders set their rate tiers by LVR band. As you pay down your loan and values move, you can cross a pricing tier without noticing.
Yes, Ratey is free to use. We are independent of every lender, and the product is a watch service rather than a sales channel. If you ask us to introduce you to a mortgage broker, we may be paid a referral fee for that introduction, and our Terms say so. Asking is entirely optional and your dashboard reads the same either way.
No. Repricing with your current lender is usually the fastest option and costs nothing. Switching can be worth it when the gap is wide, but weigh the costs first: discharge fees, a new application, possible lenders mortgage insurance if your LVR is above 80%, and break costs on a fixed loan. Ratey shows you the gap. The decision stays yours.
Time. An appointment is accurate on the day and stale a month later. Ratey re-checks your loan against more than 35 Australian lenders every month, tracks your property value and LVR, counts down your fixed rate expiry, and tells you when something moves. The remembering becomes Ratey's job.
Show your working
Every number on this page comes from a named public source, shown beside the claim it supports. Here is the ledger, with the period each source covers.
Market figures are point in time published figures, checked each time this page is reviewed.
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