She's On The Money - Can Refinancing Really Save You Thousands?

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

What if we told you your loyalty to your bank could be costing you thousands… and your bank is hoping you never notice? By popular demand, Jaclyn Walsh from Zella Money is back to chat why refinancing could be the sneaky power play your bank really hopes you don’t make. We’re breaking down how it works, when it’s worth it, and why a mortgage broker might be your secret weapon to getting the best possible loan for you.  Whether you’re looking for a better rate, more flexibility, or just want to stop donating extra cash to your bank each month, this episode has everything you need to know. In This Episode:💸 How to know when it’s time to rethink your mortgage💸 The surprising ways refinancing can save (or cost) you thousands💸 Why cashback deals aren’t always the flex they seem💸 What a good mortgage broker can do that your bank won’t💸 And the number one excuse that’s keeping people stuck on bad ratesFREEBIE: Get our She's on the Money Mortgage rate calculator here.For all your mortgage and refinancing needs, you can contact Zella here. Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+. And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast that's here to remind you that your financial loyalty could be quietly costing you thousands of dollars. I'm Victoria Devine, And if you don't know, I'm also the founder and director of Zella Money, your go-to team of mortgage finance experts. And today we're going to dive into a topic that could literally put money into your back pocket, refinancing. And today we are definitely mixing things up. Instead of Beck or instead of Jess by my side, I've brought in someone who lives and breathes this stuff. Because if we're going to talk about refinancing, I want you to hear from someone who actually does it every single day. Jacqueline Walsh has been

on the show before and she is one of our senior brokers at Zella Money and she's no stranger to the podcast. When she joined us last time, the community were obsessed and I mean, same, like I get it. So of course we had to get her back. Jacqueline, welcome back to the show. Thank you. I'm excited that you're here and we get to have a yap about finance again. I know, we do it every single day. Yeah, but like it's not, but we get to have it like on a comfy couch instead of on spinny chairs and that's like a little bit different. Today, Jacqu, we are going to be walking through what

refinancing actually looks like, how to know if it's worth doing and everything you need to consider before making the switch. Jack, are you excited about this? Because I feel like at the time of recording, the RBA actually announced a 0.25% reduction on the cash rate yesterday. Yes. And so I could not be more perfectly timed in having you on the show because now the cash rate is sitting at 3.85 and it is the first time in two years that it has sat below 4%. And I just think everyone in our office,

we're just so excited about that. Yeah, that was a big discussion about it. A few of us thought maybe 0.5. Yeah, I feel like they're too conservative for that. Like the whole time I was like, nah, nah, nah. Wishful thinking, gotta put it out there. I reckon we'll get another 0.25 maybe next time the RBA meet or the time after that

because I know that we're technically all of the economists are saying that by the end of the year, we are very likely to head towards the 3% mark, which would be very nice. Look, it's on its way down, but we're thankful. Very, very nice. But let's start the chat for those who might not know, Jack, what is refinancing? Okay. So it's essentially replacing your old home loan with a new home loan. So that could be at the same bank that you're with, or you can look at going to another lender, there's like a whole different variety as to why you would do this.

Yeah, but it's not, I think a lot of people are like, oh, I refinanced my loan recently, but they just called up their bank and got a better rate. That's different. Refinancing is actually picking up the finance offer you have and getting a completely new one. Yes. A bit of paperwork, a bit of organizing,

having a chat with a good broker, but it's not so much about asking for a better rate, which we actually recommend you do. Definitely. And if you've got a good broker, like if you're a Zella Money client, you know this already, we are already going to be getting you guys better rates because it's part of our offering, right? Like literally when the cash rates go down, we are, and we've got a pinned, we use Slack at work. We've got a pinned thread

at the moment of all of the dates when all of the banks are actually going to be honoring that drop and letting us know, you know, how much they're decreasing their interest rates by so that we can literally get on the phone and be like, Hey, so you know, all of our clients that's being passed on, right? Like lock it in, Eddie. And then when they come to us, we can obviously tell them, yep, it's happening this day. The bank's going to automatically pass it on or if you need to do anything else. Yeah. But if you don't have a broker, I would definitely be considering calling your bank and going, hey, so just confirming that's going to be passed on. Because sometimes in your terms and conditions, it might be that, yes, it's a variable interest

rate, but like you've got to call them and lock in the lower rate. Otherwise they continue to charge you the higher rate. Yeah. It's not guaranteed with every single bank that they're just going to pass it on and therefore your monthly repayment is going to be less every single month. So yeah, if you are directly with the bank, we definitely recommend jumping on the phone and giving them a call. Yeah. And it's a good idea to do that. And then if you haven't had any traction, maybe then's the time to have a chat to a broker to go, okay, well that didn't work. Now what? Now what? Because we have done whole episodes on this show about like loyalty tax. Yeah. Being loyal, it doesn't pay. It's completely gone out the window. Yeah. Being

loyal, it doesn't pay. So what do you think about the, I guess, comfort trap of sticking with your current lender? I think a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to move. I really like NAB or Macquarie or ANZ or whatever. Like I've been with them for 20 years and like I banked with them and now I have my loan with them. Why are people so comfortable staying? I don't even know if it's that they necessarily like their bank, like that they're, you know, really want to stay with them. I think that the idea of moving is maybe just a little bit more daunting than it should be. Yeah, totally. I do understand like why people get stuck or stay. I mean, everyone's so busy these days that just having another task to do and, you know, I think gone are the days where

you used to have to sit on the phone for hours and beg to put their rates down. Now, if you're directly with a bank, most of the time that you can just jump on your app and I guess request a a discount that way or send through an email. But if you have a broker, just shoot them off an email and just see where you're sitting and they can just have a look at comparing all the offers out there for you. Yeah, 100%. And I guess how often should we be reviewing our mortgages? What does that look like? I would say every six months. And I say six monthly just because most banks will only allow you to sort of do a pricing review once every six months. If you try and, you know, do two or three in that period. Yeah, they just don't allow it. They say, sorry, we reviewed yours

three months ago. You're done. Yeah. So six monthly, definitely. But there's obviously other reasons as to why you would look into that as well. So not just that obviously the RBAs reduce their rates, want to make sure that we're getting the best interest rate possible. If there's been any changes to your circumstances. So, you know, if your house price has gone up or, you know, the neighbor down the road has just sold their property and they've got a great outcome and you want to see what your true and correct like LVR, so loan to value ratio looks like that can have an impact on your rate as well. So it's definitely worth checking. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think that, you know, you gave the advice, call up your broker, but like, it's quite,

and I don't want to say it's funny, but it's interesting because some brokers do require that prompting of, oh, hey, can you review my loan? And they go, oh, hey, Jacqueline, haven't spoken to you in a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll pick it up and have a look at it. Whereas like we, and this is not me like trying to stroke our egos, but like good brokerage practices will have a pricing team like we do. And their job is actually every single day going through the thousands of clients we have and repricing their mortgage. So like our clients, once you kind of get in, you get on the cycle and every six months we can basically guarantee that your mortgage has been reviewed and it gets reviewed. We've already called the bank,

we've negotiated the lower rate and you'll just get an email or probably a call from Jack being like, Hey, just wanted to touch base. How are you? We actually dropped your rate this week. Bye. Have a nice day. There's actually no admin from your behalf, which I think is if you're going to use a broker and like, honestly, if we're going to make money from you and your loan, I think we should be working for that. I don't think that we should just be taking it and being like, Oh, let's cruise along. I just, there's something about that that makes me feel uncomfortable to not put clients consistently in the best possible position. Well, yeah, exactly right. We're going to do the work for you. So the second that you do settle,

like you said, our pricing team will diarise every six months to do that work for you. So you don't have to jump on the phone. You don't have to send that email. It's just sort of set and forget and we'll do it for you. Yeah, 100%. So when should we be considering refinancing? I feel like the biggest push is when people say, oh, the cash rates dropped, but there are 6 million reasons why you would refinance. Talk me through some of your recent refinances? Why are they refinancing, Jack? Oh, like you said, there is so many reasons as to why you would. It could be as simple as changing your loan product. So if you're going from a fixed to a variable or vice versa, if you're needing to access any equity, so you might

be looking at consolidating any loans or just cashing out some money for renovations or whatever that looks like. Same with, like I said, if the house price has gone up or if you've made a lump some payment to your home loan and it's changing that LVR. A lot of the banks now are doing tiered interest rates. So if you're sitting between that 70 to 80% mark, you might get one rate. You're sitting between 60 to 70. So it's always worth staying on top of, but there is so many different reasons. It could even be just that you want to change the loan term. So what I mean by that is you might have a 20 loan term on your current home loan. You're looking at freeing a little bit more of cashflow. You might want to look at extending that just while the interest

rates are a little bit higher. And then looking at bringing that back down, you know, after they sort of drop a bit more. Yeah. A hundred percent. And like financial advice, I think gets confused a lot of the time with mortgage brokers. I have this conversation in my DMs on, I'd say a weekly basis. People will be like, oh my gosh, do I need to see a financial advisor? Cause I want to talk about whether I should sell my property or rent it out. And to me, that's not a financial advice question because yes, a financial advisor could sit you down and be like, okay, cool, Jacqueline, you'd be in the best possible position if you X, Y, Z. But like a broker is going to be able to model all of those scenarios for you and go, okay, Jack, if you sold, it would look like this.

And this is what we would expect that property to sell for. And also this is how much equity you've got. This is how much cash would probably come into your bank account. And you'd be able to play with that. Okay. If we rented it out, this is what we could do with it. Like this is how much equity you've got to leverage into another property. And like we're part of that decision-making team. Like, no, technically we can't tell you what to do, but we're just laying all the scenarios out and be like, Oh, would you look at that? That one looks like it comes out ahead, doesn't it? And the client's often like, Oh my God, I would never want to X, Y, Z if I could do this. And so I think it's, we're not leading you down the garden path, but we're

giving you every single stepping stone so that you can pave your own path and work out what's going on. And I mean, you could go, oh, well, Jack, what if I bought for 650? Oh, actually, what if it was 700? We can like model out all of those different options. And I think that when you're refinancing going, well, what's that even look like? Like you've called your bank, you've got the lowest interest rate, but you know, it's not the lowest interest rate on the market. Maybe you're going, well, what does it look like? We've owned this house for five years. Let's have a look at what equity you've got. Cause I think a lot of the time people are surprised if they've been homeowners for a little while at how possible and how easy it might be to get into their next

property, whether that is, you know, a bigger family home or an investment property or whatever that looks like. Often we sit down and go, did you realize you probably have like $150,000 of equity? And they're like, but I don't have that in my offset account. No, you don't. But the house is worth more than the mortgage that you owe. And so we could actually use some of that equity to buy a investment property and you don't have to come up with any cash. So that's a very popular reason we see in our community, I would say, as to why people are trying to like refinance because obviously that requires a different loan structure. Exactly. A lot of time people will, you know, put as much money into their home loan to reduce that loan. So instead of, I guess, having your

savings sitting on the side, you've got it in your home loan working for you. So when the time comes that you want to look at purchasing that next property, we are able to access the equity and the extra funds that you've put into that home loan and draw it back out for your deposit for the next property. Yeah, exactly. And I think that a lot of people assume, oh no, that must be financial advisor broker. Couldn't tell me if I could, we can model it out. We can sit you down and go, okay, cool. This is what that would look like. This is what it would look like if you did it over here or over there. And I think that that's the cool thing about it. It's free as opposed to going and seeing a financial advisor who would go, oh, so you say you want to buy an

investment property and they will do your whole financial plan. That's cool. But like the question that you wanted answered was, can I afford it? Exactly. And I can work that out for you with one of my brokers very quickly and it won't cost you anything. So what are some signs that, and I think this is a really important one and people don't realize it. What are some signs that your mortgage maybe isn't working for you anymore? Like you set it up, you thought you did absolutely everything. You dotted all your I's, you crossed all your T's and now maybe it's not working for you anymore? Well, I think, I mean, offsets aren't new, but they're still quite relatively new, I guess, in the lending world. If you don't have an offset or you haven't entertained what that

looks like, that might be something that you need to consider, especially having your salary paid into an account or whether it's with the same bank or not with the same bank, just having a look at the different features that might be more beneficial to you, I guess. Yeah. I think a lot of people also like, if you're in a bit of a pinch and you're like, oh, I'm really feeling these mortgage repayments every single month. Like you don't have to kind of suffer in silence. You can talk to a mortgage broker and go, okay, cool. Well, what could we do? How could we refinance this so that we're more financially comfortable today? And, but we still have a plan to pay it off before retirement. And I think that that's an important factor as well, because sometimes

you might be worried about refinancing because you're like, I don't want to start a brand new 30 year term. Like I don't need a new loan to restart. I just, I don't think that's a good idea. But that's probably the top one that comes through is that the refinancing, they assume that if you refinance, you have to push it back out to 30 years. So what do you do? So in terms of when you're looking at refinancing, we don't have to stretch it back out of 30 years, but in some cases you might look to do that just purely because trying to free up a bit of cash flow at the moment. A lot of the time clients will keep it at 30 years so that they're contracted to 30 years and it's the bare minimum payments.

But then when they settle, they'll jump online. They can change it back down to say 20 years. So I can tell you exactly what that needs to look like and what you need to change it to, to pay it off in 20 years time. But the beauty of it is, is if you're contracted to the bare minimum, at least you know that if something happens with work

or you want to go on travel, you can just drop it down for that month or however long you want back to the bare minimum and it's in control with you. Like you don't have to contact the bank. You're not going to get in trouble with that. Like you are just killing it yourself. I love that.

But then you might come back, you know, after you've traveled for six months and say, right, you know, I've got a promotion or I've got, you know, more savings than I thought. I can make bigger repayments now. If I wanted to chop off, say another five years, what do my repayments need to look like now? Yeah. And do you know what, Jack, you don't know this, but at the time that this episode is dropping, I have a free mortgage repayment calculator dropping on our website as well. So we'll put the link to that in our show notes as well. But I think that that will be like a really helpful tool because it's a really basic spreadsheet that I've built. That is like, you put your mortgage amount in, you put your interest rate amount in, and then you can play

around with the repayments and see the timeframe that it would take to pay that off. Because there's obviously a lot of maths that goes into the back of that. That's not just like one plus one equals two. Like your interest rate is kind of like it's compounds, like compound interest on an investment would. So there's a lot of like, you end up paying a lot more of the mortgage off in the later periods of your life and a lot more interest at the start. So anyway, I will have that in the show notes for you to download for free so that you can kind of play around with that or just even see, well, what would it look like if I could refinance and drop my rate by, you know, 0.25%? Like, does that actually put me in a better position? How much of a good position?

Because it's very handy to know and feel like you're in control. And you might be in a position where with the rate cuts, you know, the 0.25, I mean, obviously everyone's ecstatic about this and that means more money in our back pocket. Oh, we're so excited. Like we are, it happened yesterday for us. So like when you guys hear this, like just remember it happened yesterday. We're going out for lunch today. Like we are excited. Celebrating. You know, you might be in a position where you can keep that monthly repayment as is now. Yeah. We're paying the same amount. Yes. Some people want that money back in their back pocket, you know, free up cashflow. I get it. Some people might be in a position where

they can keep it. Therefore they're going to end up paying off their mortgage quicker. in a shorter period of time. Good example there, Jack. If you're paying like, let's say $2,000 a month to your mortgage and you're like, but I'm comfortable with that. Why would I refinance? Well, if we refinance,

you're going to continue paying that $2,000 a month and that's fantastic. But you're paying a lot less interest. You're paying a lot less interest and that mortgage is going to be gone sooner. Yes. So yes, you might be in a quote, same position day to day,

but long-term you're putting yourself in the best possible position. So what would you say to people? And I've heard this a million times and I'm sure you have too, who say, look, refinancing is just too much effort. Can't be bothered. I can see why people would think that. I mean, it's definitely not as hard. No, we're saving money, Jack. Like we are saving money. Like we save clients thousands of dollars. Like over the life of your loan, I can almost guarantee that refinancing down 0.25%, it's not

like 50 or a hundred dollars. It's tens of thousands of dollars that you're saving. Like we're not, yeah, we're not talking like, oh yeah, why bother? Like it's a pair of shoes. It's not a pair of shoes. No, I know. It's a whole ass caravan. Like you bought the shoe store bag. Yeah, yeah. So it's interesting how people go, oh, but week to week,

it doesn't impact. Yes, it does. Long term. I know. I see why people would think it's in the too hard basket. The aim is to make it as painless as possible. Like we want to get this done. We don't want this to be painful.

I want you to love us, not be annoyed by us. Yeah. I mean, yes, it is like a normal application. If you would say, go purchasing a property, we do need your income documents. We do need to see bank statements, but like I said, we'll make it as painless as possible and as quick as possible for you. If you are trying to say, match this up with like the refinance with say, a fixed period expiry date, just let us know so we can try and, you know, work with you and try and match up those dates. But if we're not aware of that, you're trying to match it up, you know, it might.

We just give us as much information as possible. Like the more info, the better. Like it's such a, I said this about financial advice and the same is for mortgage broking. Like it's such a privileged position to be in, to like know how you feel about your life and your goals and what you want to achieve, but also like financially what you're doing. Like we are so lucky to be so trusted, but like you do need to find a broker that you trust. You can't just use anybody who you go, oh, my friend used this guy. He seems a bit weird, but it's fine. Like I want you to be so confident that you're like, no, no, no. Oh, so Jack, we were actually thinking what would our mortgage repayments look like? Like what if we planned on having a baby next year? Because

that does impact your serviceability. Like a dependent joining the family is going to drop your borrowing capacity. Yes. And so we might go, right, well, in that case, we're not going to tell you when to get pregnant, but like maybe let's try by sooner rather than later. So we can lock in a good rate and then we can talk about a baby a little bit later. Like we can have those conversations and if you're not trusting somebody with you know being able to have candid nice conversations like that like maybe they're not the right fit because like we want to work as hard as possible to achieve your goals like when you win we win yeah and I think that that's a really important reminder like if you don't feel comfy being like oh hey Jerry yeah so what would my

borrowing capacity be if I had another baby like yeah I don't want to talk to Jerry about my baby plans. But Jack, I'm going to call Jack. Like, it's not just about us. It's more like find someone that you just really gel with. Because from my perspective, sometimes people see the relationship you have with the mortgage broker is transactional, but it's not. Like if you find a good mortgage broker, they are on your team for the life of your loan. That's like 30 years of us checking in, always making sure you've got the best rate, talking to you about, you know, potential investment opportunities. Okay, cool, Jack, you've got like enough for a deposit. Did you want to leverage that? What does that look like? Are you comfortable? Like we want you to

be in the best possible position ever. I really like your comment around, you know, when you win, we win. It really does feel like that. We're going out for lunch guys because your interest rate dropped. I mean, who wants to be paying any more money in interest if you don't have to? 100. We're on she's on the money. I'm not here to waste my money. I didn't say I always spend it in line with other people's values, but I want to be able to be in the best possible financial position. Now, I think a lot of people are listening and they're like, look, maybe refinancing is worth it. But how do you actually do it is the question. So up next, we're going to talk about the features that actually matter, the fees that you need to

watch out for and how to spot a deal that's actually worth switching for. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right. So Jack, we're back and I'm very excited about this because we've covered when refinancing makes sense and why it can feel a little bit overwhelming, but what happens when someone actually does it? Like if we're going to go and do the whole refinancing thing, can you just, I guess, maybe share a client win that you've had recently? Someone who thought maybe it was too hard, but ended up saving a whole heap of money. You're like, yeah everybody because otherwise it wasn't worth refinancing we also i guess if you come to a mortgage broker right and i know it's not worth refinancing we will tell you we're not gonna like

babe we don't want you to do the admin and go through hoops to then think that we didn't do anything no it has to be beneficial for you to do it to make the move we're gonna like lay it all out there we're gonna compare it all including like the discharge fees and the new like signing up fees and things like that. And if it doesn't make sense, we will tell you, stay put. Let's chat soon. Yeah. Like just sit pretty. You've actually got a pretty good deal. And that's a good position to be in as well, because then you know that you're in the best possible position currently. Yeah. But at least you're checking, right? Yeah, exactly. So for anyone who's, I guess, never gone through this before, because I think a lot of our community,

they've just bought their first homes in the last few years and maybe they've never refinanced. What does the refinance process actually involve? So like, let's say I want you to do it for me, Jack, I pick up the phone and go, hey, Jack, you are now my official broker. What do I do? So I guess from here, we would compare obviously rates, number one, looking at, you know, getting a lower rate. So less monthly repayments, things like that. We're going to look at the discharge fees, like I said, what that looks like, the land titles office fees to discharge the mortgage from the loan. That's a lot of fees I don't think a lot of people thought about. No, but we will lay it all out on table for you. So we will compare it all,

we'll send you an email. It's all, you know, their fee to visually see it. So we're talking, you know, what your rate is, what your payment is, what your startup fees look like, your discharge fees, any of your annual fees with the new bank. You may or may not have had one. Do you have one now? So we've got to weigh it all up and make sure it's still beneficial when taking everything into account. Yeah, absolutely. So talk to me about, obviously I'm very pro broker. I own a mortgage brokering. It's kind of like I own a mortgage brokering business. Obviously I'm pro broker, but like I adore the idea of a broker for a number of reasons, but like Jack, why wouldn't someone just go directly to a bank instead of, you know, talking to a broker? Cause that's a

very valid question. Yes, it is. I don't want to say anything wrong. Jacqueline's very PC in the nicest possible way she's very complimentary of everybody in the industry honestly sometimes to her detriment but I think it's look I used to work for a bank so but you did a really you did a different role but I think it's interesting because like if you go to the bank it's kind of like going down to let's say you want to like go buy a packet of chips right so you walk into Smith's the Smith's factory and you say what chips have you got yeah and they're gonna show you all of the chips that they have in their particular range. They're going to go, oh, we've got these crinkle cut ones. They're really popular. We've got this, this, and this. And you go, okay, cool.

Like that's all the chip ranges. I'm going to pick from that. And you've got maybe like five options, right? I'm going to say two or three. Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know. I don't actually buy chips that often. I just thought it was a good example, but then you go, all right, well, maybe I'll just go down to Coles or Woolies. And that's like your broker. You go in, there's a whole damn aisle. There's every opportunity. There's a Red Rock Deli. You've got the gluten free options. You've got, you know, Thins. You've got Lay's. You've got Smith's is there too. Yeah. But you now have so many more options, so many more price points, so many more flavors and benefits. That's, I guess, the difference. So yes, you absolutely could go direct. If you're like,

I don't care. I only want to bank with NAB ever, Victoria. That's great. You could be paying loyalty tax because you're not getting the best possible deal. You're not getting the best possible structure. Like we write NAB loans all the time. So don't think that RV doesn't like that. It's just an example. Cause like for some clients that works perfectly, but other clients were like, oh my goodness, have you heard of Macquarie? Like this particular platform is going to give you unlimited offset accounts and this might make the most sense for you. So I think it's all about options and it is free to go to Safeways and look at all the options. Like they're not paying an entry fee. It's not like going and seeing a financial advisor where you have to pay thousands

of dollars. We are very lucky in that we get paid by the banks, but only if your loan settles, only if it works. So that is to me really important because some people would go, oh, that feels a bit weird. But like at the end of the day, you're not being charged more as a consumer. The bank is sharing their profit with us as kind of like a finder's fee. They're going, thanks, Jack. We wouldn't have had that client without you. So we're going to split our profit with you. The client is always going to be in the best possible position. And because of Australian law and regulation, not only do we have to make sure you're in the best possible position, we have to give you three options every single time. You're not just getting one. You will

always get given, here are the top three options for you personally. So I think that that's not what would happen if you went to a mortgage broker who works directly for a bank or went to a bank directly. And it's not about like, they're good brokers. Like they are intelligent. They are smart. They just don't have access to the wide range. Exactly. And so just seeing a mortgage broker, you go, but I have a broker. Well, who are they employed by? If they're employed by a bank, to me, I would go, well, maybe you're not getting as many options put on the table as possible. They could be the best person in the entire world. I mean, you heard before, Jacqueline used to work for a bank. But when you did, you would have had a limited range of opportunity.

It's pretty much looking at variable or fixed, really. Exactly. They will give you obviously the best product that they can offer. I'm sure of it. But like you said, if you're going to a broker, we've got, I mean, sometimes you've got 60 different lenders on your panel. So there's 60 different options that we can put in the mix and show you. Exactly. And I think that that's really important to take into consideration as well. So Jack, beyond chasing a lower rate, what loan features should we actually be looking for to make sure that refinancing actually improves our financial situation? Like, I feel like so many

times people just really get stuck on the numbers and they're like, I just want a lower rate. I just want a lower rate. What else are we looking for? Fees, I guess, annual fees, accounts, offsetting fees. Some banks will have it, you know, set per month or per year. So taking into account, if you're paying any of those fees, number one, do you have an offset? Is it going to be worth you introducing an offset? Do you have separate banking at different banks? Is it worth looking at putting it maybe with the one bank? And then that way we can put your savings into one of the offsets or your holiday fund or your spending funds, because all of that money that is in an offset is working for you. So, you know, you're paying less in interest on your mortgage

every single, or it's calculated daily actually. So it's. So I guess on that as well, your mortgage broker can, and should from my perspective, be helping you with cashflow. So they should be sitting down and going, all right, so this is how we're going to budget. This is what this looks like. This money goes into this. It's one of our favorite parts of our job. Like once you've got your loan, being able to go, okay, cool. We're going to put you in the best possible position by doing A, B, C, and D. Got any questions? Call me. Like, cause I'll know. And it's just so fun. we obviously have lots of different fees and that can be really overwhelming but the flip side is cash back offers like I feel like they're probably going to make a resurgent soon because of the

dropping cash rate and obviously lots of people have their eyes on lots of different opportunities so you might see some of the big banks going refinance with us and we'll give you three thousand dollars cash or two thousand dollars you see it all the time is it worth it be I mean every single bank I felt like was playing part in that probably two or three years ago. It was everywhere. Pre-COVID, everybody was doing a cash back offer. Yeah. And brokers can access that for you too. You don't have to go direct to that bank. You call your broker first. Yeah. Now it has sort of dropped. There is only probably limited banks that are offering it. You got to weigh it up. Like sometimes I do think it probably is a shiny distraction. I think it's easy if you don't have

a broker who's obviously, you know, going to, like I said, lay it all out on the table for you, show you every little single fee and charge and take everything into account. I think if you're doing it direct to bank, it's easy to go, well, you know, they're going to offer me $2,000 or $3,000. Why wouldn't I? Yeah. Money win. Yeah. But long-term it might cost you more than that. I do find sometimes the interest rate is probably slightly higher than what you could get, but I mean, not to take it out. You just got to weigh up where that pinpoint is in your loan term. like you know after one year is it now that we're at that break point where it's no longer working and do we need to look at now either refinancing yet again to get a lower interest rate or you

know sometimes people will just slip into the comfort of just staying with them again and that's probably how that's what they're doing exactly probably we got you in the door with the shiny thing and then you stayed because it was warm here i think that's interesting as well because yeah so many times we think that's a good deal but like instant gratification versus delayed gratification. Sometimes you just don't have the numbers. Don't forget, most of the time your loan is over a 30-year loan term. Yeah. And three grand over the long term, maybe you're paying $10,000 more, maybe not. I'm sure that $3,000 is probably not sitting in your offset, you know, working for you. I'm sure that's already been spent. Oh yeah. In my head,

that's free money. Sorry, that's not my savings. That's free money. Yeah. Going on a holiday with it. Yeah. Yeah. Money win. So talk to me about, obviously we want to be shopping for a better rate because it is important to get the best deal possible. But how does that impact my credit score? I mean, if you're just looking like window shopping, it's not going to obviously impact your credit score. So if we're just seeing what's out there, reaching out to a mortgage broker to see what options there are, then your credit file is not being touched whatsoever. If we're actually committing to it and actually going ahead with the refinance, then obviously, yes, it is going to have a hit on your credit file that's not necessarily going to have a negative effect

however multiple times in a short period of time yes this don't go talk to lots of brokers and submit lots of inquiries and do all of that because I don't know how to say this but you are disadvantaging all of the brokers if you are shopping around I'm not saying don't have an initial chat with them and if they're not the broker for you go find somebody else but don't go down the garden path. Don't like submit a credit inquiry with a broker just to see what options they can put on the table for you. They don't need to be doing, yeah. No, because all good brokers honestly should be able to analyze your situation in exactly the same way as the next broker down the road and get the same outcome. And if they're not, I'm actually

a little bit concerned. The important cherry on top there is like the relationship you have with them, the above and beyond, what additional things does that business offer you in terms of support and ongoing client relationship and like whatever that looks like. And I think that that's really important to consider as well, because it's just, it's so important that we're not just making multiple inquiries on our credit score just to see, because that can drop your credit score and therefore make it harder to get a better deal. Exactly. Because when you have credit, I think we've spoken about that previously, but credit scores can have an impact on which lenders will and won't take you. So therefore, instead of having, you know, the door open to say, like I

said, 60 different lenders, you might only be able to now look at three options. Yeah. So it is hindering where you can go and what you can get. Yeah. And a broker will be able to guide you on that too. Cause like if you've got terrible credit or something, you can still have a chat and be like, well, what can I do Jack to either increase my credit score or like, can I ever move while they have a bad credit score? And can you move? Like if my credit score is not amazing, Jack, do I have to wait? What can I do? We need to obviously have a look at it, see what it is, see what the actual background is and what we can do. But there's certainly options. We've definitely had clients that have come to us that we've been able to move

from a much lower rate that thought that their credit score wasn't too... It wasn't incredible. But like once we have a couple of conversations with the BDMs and the banks, they're like, oh, that makes sense. No, we'd be willing to accept them. All good. yeah that's where the relationship part comes into it a lot of the time jack this has been incredible but unfortunately it is all we have time for today thank you so much for jumping back on the show genuinely i feel like i was like not pulling teeth but i was like so could you do this week what about next week can you come on the show and talk about refinancing because like i'm getting a lot of questions about refinancing i feel like you always explain stuff in a really clear and

really practical way that just makes sense and i know that people are going to find this really helpful. So I appreciate it. No worries. Thanks. No, of course. And guys, it doesn't need to be a massive process and getting the right support can make it a whole lot easier. Even if you're just checking, if your rate is going to drop is a great first step. And of course, if you've got questions or you want to help figuring out if it is the right move for you, the team at Zella Money, we're literally always here. I'll put our contact details in the show notes because if I can't shamelessly promote my own business on my own show why are we here and as always if you enjoyed this episode make sure that you're following the show hit subscribe and leave us a

review and share it with someone who you think might need a little refinancing nudge we'll see you again on Friday bye guys bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.