Bayleythebroker

Bayleythebroker Here to assist with all things finance

01/09/2026

Will refinancing my home loan put me back to a 30 year loan term?

No, not unless you choose to.

When you refinance you get to have another look at how the loan is set up and decide how you want it moving forward. A lot of that comes down to what you want your minimum repayments to look like, and how long you want to be paying it off for.

If you’ve got 25 years left and you want it to line up, we just put the loan at 25 years. Some people want the flexibility of lower minimums, so they go back to 30 knowing they can make extra repayments. Others have surplus cash flow and cut it to 20.

You’ve got a lot of flexibility. It’s a conversation about what actually meets your goals over the next stretch of your life.

Got a question? Send it through.

31/08/2026

Is it worth refinancing for a 0.25% interest rate decrease? Is that dumb?

It just depends on what the financial benefit looks like once you factor in any switching related costs. When you’re looking at changing banks I try and budget anywhere between $1,000 and $1,200 per property in related charges.

So that 0.25% difference needs to make up, as far as interest savings, well and truly more than the cost it is to switch.

If that difference means you’re going to save $3,000 a year, then paying $1,000 to switch is probably worth it. If it’s only going to save you $1,000 a year, it’s going to take you a full year to even make up the cost of switching.

From there you can decide whether it’s actually worth it, or whether you just call your bank to see if they can drop it for you, or you suck it up a little longer until there’s a deal that makes more sense.

Got a question? Send it through

27/08/2026

When is refinancing a bad idea?

Refinancing is a bad idea when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

There’s a lot of different motivations for refinancing. Some people are looking for a lower rate. Some are looking for the maximum they can pull out in the form of equity. Others are looking to change their monthly minimum repayments by resetting the loan term.

The overarching rule of thumb is if there’s no financial benefit once you factor in switching costs, it isn’t worth doing. I budget anywhere between $1,000 and $1,200 per property to switch banks.

If you’re just chasing 0.1% off the rate and it’s going to take you two years to make that difference up, then it wouldn’t be worth it.

Got a question? Send it through.

26/08/2026

Macquarie home loan customers this is for you 🎁

Weekly shops at 3-4% off, big retailers up to 7-8% off and you just select the amount you need to spend, and Macquarie will only take the amount needed from your account.

Works online and in store for most places, always forget about this quick win

All you have to do is press the $ on the home page, press marketplace and there you will have allllll the retailers that you can do this with, happy shopping 👌🏻

26/08/2026

You ask, I answer

Any questions I get will become a new page on the website bcos if there’s one thing I know is that if one person asks me a question, there is more likely to be dozens more with the same one

Link in bio 🤝

26/08/2026

Can I get a loan on probation, or straight after switching jobs?

Yeah, generally. A lot of the banks nowadays are pretty cool with probation, especially if you’ve got industry experience relevant to the role you’re doing now.

If you’re just changing companies and there’s not a massive gap between when you left the previous job and when you started the new one, the banks kind of see that as happy days. Four weeks or less between employers, full time or permanent, and you can still get a home loan.

Switching casual jobs is a little bit different and we’ve got to be careful there.

Got a question? Send it through.

25/08/2026

Will the bank include my bonus income that I receive each and every year?

Yes, they absolutely will. We just have to demonstrate that it’s somewhat consistent.

A lot of lenders will look back two years and use the average of the two. Or if the previous year was lower, they’ll just use the lower figure. There are plenty of banks that will use your latest bonus figure on its own, which often means you can borrow a little bit more.

Got a question? Send it through.

This is your sign to buy a burner phone for burner phone weekends
24/08/2026

This is your sign to buy a burner phone for burner phone weekends

24/08/2026

Buy now pay later and things like Afterpay are seen as a credit limit. You could theoretically spend up to a thousand or two thousand on any of them.

So a lot of banks just treat it like a credit card. For every thousand dollars of limit, roughly times it by five. That’s how much it affects your borrowing capacity. A $1,000 Afterpay limit is about $5,000 off what you can borrow.

It’s not going to stop you getting a home loan. But it does add up if you’ve got a bunch of them.

Got a question? Send it through.

24/08/2026

Why doesn’t my equity count as borrowing power?

This comes up a bit. Someone will say we’ve got so much equity, can’t we just pull it out and use it.

No. You’ve got to borrow that equity in order to use it. And to borrow it, we’ve got to prove to the bank you can repay it over a 30 year loan term. If you can’t show the income to repay it, you can’t pull it out.

The only other way to access it is to sell the asset.

Equity does not equal borrowing power. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you can use it.

Got a question? Send it through.

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