Is your home loan costing you a loyalty tax?
A 15-minute check you can run yourself. You need your latest loan statement and your banking app.
1. Find your actual rate
Look at your latest statement or banking app. It is probably not the rate you signed up at, because it has moved several times since. Write it down along with your balance.
2. Check your bank’s new customer rate
Look up what your own bank advertises to a new customer with a similar loan size and deposit. If it is lower than yours, that gap is the loyalty tax.
3. Put a dollar figure on it
On a $550,000 loan, a gap of 0.40% to 0.60% is about $2,200 to $3,300 a year. Use the repayment calculator with your balance at both rates.
4. Check what you are paying for
- Package fee. Worth it if you use the offset and the discount. Wasted if you don’t.
- Offset. Is your money actually sitting in it?
- Interest only. If you are on it without a reason, the balance is not moving.
- Fixed term. Note the end date. The roll-off rate is rarely the bank’s best.
5. Close the gap
- Ring your bank, say you are reviewing your loan and ask for a better rate. Retention teams can discount where branch staff can’t.
- Ask them to match a specific competing offer.
- Have us compare 40+ lenders, including yours, and tell you whether repricing or refinancing comes out ahead after costs.
For Modern Lending clients this check happens every year without you asking.
Questions people ask
How often should I check?
Once a year, and whenever a fixed rate is about to end or your circumstances change.
General information, last updated November 2026. Scheme figures, lender policies and duty rates change, so confirm them before you rely on them.
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Want us to run the check for you?
Send your balance and rate. We will tell you if the market can beat it.