How the all-in rate works

The formula

all-in rate = interest rate p.a. + ( establishment fee % × 12 ÷ term in months )

The second half is the part that matters. A one-off fee is not an annual cost, so to compare it against a rate we spread it across the actual term of the loan. The shorter the loan, the more that fee hurts — which is exactly the trap in short-term lending.

Worked example

A $500,000 first mortgage at 9.00% p.a. with a 2% establishment fee:

Interest rate	9.00%
Establishment fee	2.00% ($10,000)
Term	12 months
Fee annualised (2% × 12 ÷ 12)	2.00%
All-in rate	11.00%

Now run the same loan over six months instead:

Interest rate	9.00%
Fee annualised (2% × 12 ÷ 6)	4.00%
All-in rate	13.00%

Same lender, same fee, same rate card — two percentage points apart. This is why we ask for your term before ranking anything, and why a lender that looks cheapest on a 12-month deal can be the most expensive on a 6-month one.

What it does not cover yet

We would rather tell you the gaps than let you assume there aren't any. The figure above currently leaves out:

Exit and discharge fees — some lenders charge a mandatory exit fee, which lands entirely in a short term
Line fees on undrawn funds — matters most on construction and staged facilities
Legal, valuation and QS costs — real money, but usually paid to third parties rather than the lender
Capitalised or prepaid interest — changes what you actually receive at settlement, not the headline cost
Broker fees — yours, not the lender's

We are adding these as we collect them lender by lender. Until a field is filled for every lender on the panel, including it would make the ranking less honest, not more — a lender that disclosed its exit fee would be punished against one that simply hadn't told us yet.

Ranking rules

Lenders whose published criteria your scenario fails are removed, not buried.
The rest are sorted by all-in rate, lowest first.
Lenders who do not publish rates are shown last, marked on application. They are not ranked worse — they are unranked.
No lender can pay for position. There is no field in our database that would let them.

Where the numbers come from

Most profiles are built from the lender's own published rate cards and product guides, with the source linked and the date we last checked it shown on every result. Lenders can claim their profile to keep it current, and a claimed profile carries a verified tag. Claiming changes who maintains the data — it does not change where the lender ranks.

Every figure is indicative. Formal terms only ever come from the lender.

See the panel →