For homeowners juggling debts

One repayment.
A lot less interest.

Credit cards and personal loans charge far more than your home loan does. Rolling them into your mortgage can turn several repayments into one — at a fraction of the interest rate.

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Interest snapshot

What you're paying now vs. rolled into your mortgage.

Credit card balance

Personal loan balance

Mortgage rate

Interest now

$378

per month

Rolled into mortgage

$120

per month

That's $258 less in interest, every month.

Illustrative only — compares interest at today's balances, not total cost over time. Spreading debt over your full loan term can mean paying more overall unless you keep your repayments up. A broker walks through the real numbers.

Why the gap is so large

Your mortgage is the cheapest debt you own.

Standard credit card purchase rates in Australia sit around 21% p.a., and even the average rate people are actually paying on outstanding balances is close to 19% p.a. Personal loans aren't much kinder — typically 10–14% p.a. depending on your credit profile, and up into the mid-30s for the riskiest lenders.

Compare that to a home loan rate, usually somewhere in the mid single digits, and the gap is enormous. If you're juggling a credit card, a personal loan, maybe a car loan, on top of your mortgage, there's a good chance a big share of your monthly income is going straight to interest — not principal.

Debt consolidation through refinancing rolls those higher-rate debts into your home loan, so you're paying one rate, on one repayment, instead of juggling several. It's not free money — it's a restructure, and it comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you do it.

Both sides of it

What it can fix — and what it doesn't.

Consolidating debt is a genuine tool, not a shortcut. An honest broker walks you through both sides before you restructure anything.

What it can fix

Swap 15–35% interest on cards and personal loans for your home loan rate.
One repayment instead of several — simpler to manage, harder to miss.
Frees up monthly cash flow that was going straight to high interest.
A broker can structure it so you're not paying for it for the next 30 years.

What to watch out for

Unsecured debt becomes secured against your home — it's now on the line.
Spread over a 25–30 year term, you can pay more total interest unless you keep repayments at your old level.
It doesn't fix the habits that built the debt — new cards need to stay paid off.
Lenders assess the whole picture; existing debt levels affect what you can borrow.

Total interest calculator

The real trade-off:
rate vs. time.

A lower rate helps — but stretching the same debt over decades can eat that saving. See what happens if you keep paying roughly what you pay now.

Your debts today

Credit card balance

Credit card rate

Personal loan balance

Personal loan rate

Years to pay off as-is

Your mortgage

Mortgage rate

Remaining term

Total interest, paying these debts off as-is

$13,264

at $638/month across cards and loans

Consolidated, stretched to full term

$157/month over 25 years

$22,138

Consolidated, keeping your old repayment

Paid off in ~3.6 years

$2,752

The rate drop only pays off if the term doesn't stretch too. A broker structures the split so you keep the saving without carrying the debt for decades.

Ask a broker

Indicative only, based on principal-and-interest repayments with constant rates. Actual rates, fees and structuring depend on your full circumstances and lender policy.

Worked example

Three repayments a month, down to one.

Picture a homeowner carrying a $15,000 credit card balance at around 21% p.a., plus a $10,000 personal loan at around 14% p.a. — on top of their regular mortgage. Between the two, they're paying several hundred dollars a month in interest alone, before a dollar comes off either balance.

By refinancing and rolling both debts into their home loan, that $25,000 now sits at the mortgage rate instead — a fraction of what they were paying. Structured to keep roughly the same monthly repayment as before rather than stretching it across the full 25-year term, it's paid off in a similar timeframe, at a fraction of the interest.

The part that matters: the saving only holds if the repayment schedule is structured deliberately, not left to default to the longest term available. That structuring is exactly what a broker does before you sign anything.

This is an illustrative example, not a specific client. Every application is subject to individual circumstances, serviceability assessment and lender approval. This is general information within Australian Credit Licence scope and is not financial, tax or credit advice — seek advice suited to your own situation before proceeding.

Keep readingIs refinancing worth it? The full guide + savings calculator

Debt consolidation FAQs

Questions, answered.

You refinance your home loan for a higher amount, enough to cover your existing mortgage balance plus your other debts — credit cards, personal loans, car loans. Those debts are paid out in full, and you're left with a single repayment at your mortgage rate instead of several repayments at much higher rates.

The interest rate is almost always lower, but the total interest you pay depends on how long you take to repay it. Spread over a full 25–30 year mortgage term, you can end up paying more overall than if you'd cleared the debt faster at a higher rate. A broker structures the repayment so the rate saving isn't eaten by a longer term.

No — this is the key trade-off. Once it's rolled into your home loan, that debt becomes secured against your property. If repayments aren't met, your home is at risk in a way it wasn't when the debt was an unsecured credit card or personal loan.

Your existing debts are already factored into how lenders assess your borrowing capacity, so consolidating doesn't necessarily reduce it — but the new, larger mortgage balance and your full financial picture are reassessed as part of the refinance.

Nothing automatically — consolidation clears the balance but doesn't close the account unless you ask. Many people close or reduce the limit on paid-off cards as part of the process, precisely to avoid re-accumulating the same debt on top of a larger mortgage.

Sometimes — if you have usable equity, a top-up or redraw on your existing loan may cover it without switching lenders. Whether that's available, and whether it's cheaper than a full refinance, depends on your current lender and loan structure. A broker checks both paths.

Simplify it,
properly.

A licensed broker maps your actual debts against your actual mortgage — and structures it so the saving is real. No phone number, no obligation.

Start the conversation

One repayment.A lot less interest.