What Is a Refinance Cashback Offer?
A refinance cashback is a lump sum a lender pays you after your loan settles with it, as an incentive to switch. It is marketing spend: instead of advertising, the lender pays the customer directly. Cashbacks come and go with market conditions. They were widespread a few years ago, many lenders have since withdrawn them, and some still run them from time to time.
Are Refinance Cashback Offers Worth It?
Sometimes. The test is simple: would you choose this loan if the cashback did not exist? If the rate, fees and features are competitive, the cashback is a genuine bonus that can cover your switching costs. If the rate is higher than you could get elsewhere, the cashback is being repaid, by you, through the interest.
How Do You Compare a Cashback Against a Lower Rate?
Convert the rate difference into dollars per month and see how long the cashback lasts against it.
Worked example on a $600,000 loan with 25 years remaining:
- Loan A offers a $2,000 cashback.
- Loan B has no cashback but a rate 0.25% lower, which saves about $91 a month.
- $2,000 divided by $91 is about 22 months. After that point, Loan B is ahead and stays ahead for as long as you hold the loan.
If the rate gap were 0.50%, the saving is about $181 a month and the cashback is overtaken in under a year. The larger the loan and the longer you plan to keep it, the more the rate matters and the less the cashback does. You can test your own figures with the refinance savings calculator.
I am happy when a client gets a cashback, provided it comes attached to a loan I would have recommended anyway. What I will not do is put someone in a more expensive loan because it came with a cheque. Under the best interests duty I have to recommend what leaves you better off, and over a few years that is nearly always the lower rate and the right structure.
What Conditions Usually Apply to Cashbacks?
Every offer has terms, and they vary by lender. Common ones include:
- A minimum loan amount, often $250,000 or more.
- A maximum loan-to-value ratio, commonly 80%.
- Refinances from another lender only, not internal switches.
- Application and settlement by set deadlines.
- Eligible products only, sometimes excluding the lender's sharpest basic loan.
- One cashback per application or per property, and payment some weeks after settlement.
Read the offer terms, or ask us to, before counting the money.
Can You Keep Refinancing to Collect Cashbacks?
In theory, but it rarely stacks up. Each refinance involves switching costs (see refinance costs and fees in NSW), a credit enquiry, and often a reset of the loan term if you are not careful. Lenders may also exclude customers who have recently held a loan with them. Switching when the numbers genuinely improve is sound; switching for the incentive alone usually is not.
Is a Cashback Taxable?
The tax treatment of a cashback can differ between a home you live in and an investment property. That is a question for your accountant or the ATO, not a mortgage broker.
What Matters More Than the Cashback?
The interest rate over the time you will hold the loan, the fees, whether the structure suits you (offset, splits, fixed or variable), and whether the lender's policy fits your situation. Our refinancing guide covers how those fit together.
General information only. It does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. All lending is subject to lender assessment and approval. Fees and figures are typical ranges at 14 November 2026 and can change. Lend & Loan, Australian Credit Licence 511092.
