Your fixed rate is ending. Here is what actually happens.
Nothing dramatic happens on the day. The loan just rolls onto your lender's variable revert rate - a number nobody negotiated on your behalf, and rarely the sharpest one that same lender is quoting new customers that week. No letter to sign, no default, no alarm. Which is precisely why so many loans sit on it for months.
The window that matters is the eight to twelve weeks before the expiry date, while you still hold every option.
Three doors, and they are not equally good.
Ask your lender for a better rate
Moves quickest of the three and carries no fees: days, not weeks. Your lender has a retention team whose job is keeping you. Worth trying first every single time, because the downside is a phone call. It works best when you can show them a real number from somewhere else.
Lock in another fixed term
Buys certainty, takes about a week. The trade is flexibility: you are locked out of moving, and break costs apply if your circumstances change inside the term. Right for people whose budget needs the payment to hold still.
Move the loan to another lender
Usually the biggest rate difference, and the most work: four to six weeks, and roughly $800 to $1,300 all in. Worth it when the gap is real. If it does not pay for itself well inside a year, it is not a switch - it is a repricing conversation.
What the roll actually costs, in dollars.
On a $650,000 loan over 25 years, a rate moving from 5.89% to 7.14% changes the monthly repayment by roughly $510 - about $6,100 a year.
Closing even half that gap is worth more than most people expect, and the phone call that closes it takes about ten minutes.
Illustrative only. Those two rates are an example to show the shape of the arithmetic, not a quote and not current market pricing. Your actual revert rate is set by your lender - it is on your loan documents, and we can tell you what the market is paying this week.
Tell us when it ends. We will call you before it does.
This is the part we actually do differently. Give us the expiry date and we will be in touch eight to twelve weeks out - while a reprice, a refix and a refinance are all still open to you - and tell you honestly which of the three your numbers point at. Including when the answer is to do nothing, which it sometimes is.
It is the same review we run for our own clients every six months. You do not have to be one to use it.
What people ask us.
What happens when my fixed rate ends?
Unless you do something, the loan rolls automatically onto your lender's variable revert rate. That rate is not negotiated and it is rarely the sharpest number the same lender is offering new customers that week. Nothing dramatic happens on the day - no letter you have to sign, no default - which is exactly why so many loans quietly sit on it for months.
When should I start looking at it?
Eight to twelve weeks before the expiry date. That is not a marketing number: a refinance realistically takes four to six weeks end to end, and a repricing request at your existing lender takes days but is far stronger when you are demonstrably able to walk. Start at four weeks and you are negotiating without leverage. Start after the roll and you have already paid for the delay.
Is it better to refix or refinance?
It depends on which problem you have. Refixing buys certainty and takes about a week; it also locks you out of moving and carries break costs if your circumstances change. Refinancing usually wins the biggest rate difference but costs roughly $800 to $1,300 all in and takes four to six weeks. Repricing at your existing lender moves quickest and carries no fees, so it is worth trying first - the downside is a phone call. We will tell you which of the three your numbers point at, including when the answer is to stay put.
What does it cost to switch?
Realistically $800 to $1,300 on a standard loan. Expect a discharge fee from the outgoing lender, mortgage registration and release fees payable to the state titles office, possible application or valuation fees at the new lender, and break costs if you exit a fixed rate early - those can be substantial and are the one item worth pricing before you decide anything. Many lenders absorb parts of this to win the loan. Our rule of thumb: if the switch does not pay for itself well inside a year, it is not a switch, it is a repricing conversation.
What is the mortgage cliff?
The name given to the wave of loans fixed at very low rates during 2020 and 2021 that rolled onto much higher variable rates as those terms expired through 2023 and 2024. Most of that wave has now passed through. The mechanics have not changed though: any fixed term still ends the same way, on a revert rate nobody negotiated for you.
Can I do this myself?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Ring your lender's retention team, tell them what you have been offered elsewhere, and ask them to match it. That genuinely works and it costs you nothing but the call. Where a broker earns their place is knowing what the market is actually paying this week, so the number you take to that call is real, and doing the work if the answer turns out to be a move.
Not sure whether your loan is competitive at all? The Home Loan Health Check scores it out of 10 in about two minutes, or call 07 2101 4374.