21/05/2026
A FIFO sparky came through our door last week with a $520k loan offer from his everyday bank.
Same income, same payslip, same overtime — we got him approved for $740k.
The difference wasn’t a trick or a workaround. It was the lender.
Here’s what no one tells you when you’re 22 and opening your first bank account — not every lender reads a FIFO payslip the same way. Some banks shave 20–40% straight off your income just because you’re FIFO… site allowance trimmed, overtime treated like it might vanish, LAFHA watered down, bonuses ignored unless you’ve been pulling them in for two years straight.
Others look at the exact same payslip and count the whole thing at 100% — as long as your roster’s stable, you’ve been in the industry 12+ months, and your pattern (even-time, 2/1, 8/6, whatever you’re on) reads like a routine
The maths is brutal once you see it laid out. Same $185k income, two different lenders, $220k gap in borrowing capacity.
That’s not the difference between a unit and a house — that’s the difference between buying in the suburb you actually want versus the one you’ll tolerate.
Most of the time, the bank you’ve banked with since you were a teenager is rarely the one that maximises the way you actually earn now. That’s not their fault — it’s just not what their credit policy is built for.
If you’re FIFO and your borrowing capacity came back smaller than you expected, the number isn’t the problem. The lender is.
Open to DMs if you want a second look at yours.
