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Refinancing / Loan Structure

Do You Keep Your Offset Account When You Refinance?

Technically, no offset account transfers between lenders — but that's the wrong thing to worry about.


The better question is whether your new offset is structured properly, because most competitive lenders offer one, and refinancing is often the moment to fix an offset that wasn't working as hard as it should.

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Why the "Will I Lose It" Question Misses the Point

Your offset account is tied to your current loan and closes when that loan is discharged.

But almost every lender worth refinancing to offers a genuine offset facility as part of a competitive package, so in practice, the concern isn't usually "will I have one"; it's "will the new one actually offset 100% of the balance, or only part of it?"

The Mistake This Question Usually Hides

Treating offset continuity as the goal can mean overlooking whether your current offset is even structured well.

A partial offset, a linked account with fees that eat into the benefit, or an offset that only applies to one split of a multi-split loan can all quietly reduce how much interest you're actually saving — and refinancing is a natural point to fix that, not just replicate it.

What to Confirm Before You Switch

  • Is it a 100% offset, not a partial one? A 100% offset reduces the interest-bearing balance dollar-for-dollar. Partial offsets (sometimes seen on cheaper packages) offset only a percentage of the balance held.
  • Is the linked transaction account genuinely fee-free? Some "free" offset packages carry a package fee that quietly offsets the benefit of, well, the offset.
  • How is interest calculated — daily or monthly? Daily calculation means your offset balance reduces interest from the day it's sitting there, rather than at a monthly snapshot.
  • Does it apply per split, or across the whole loan? If you're refinancing with a fixed/variable split, or separate investment and owner-occupied portions, confirm which split the offset actually attaches to — this matters more than most people realise.

Why This Matters More Than the Rate Difference

On a $500,000 loan with $50,000 consistently sitting in a genuine 100% offset, you're effectively not paying interest on that $50,000 at all — often worth more over time than chasing a marginally lower headline rate with a weaker offset structure.

This is the core of a structure-first approach: the offset arrangement usually matters more than the rate itself.

Check Your Offset Is Actually Working for You

Before refinancing, it's worth confirming exactly how your current offset performs and whether a new lender's offer genuinely improves on it.

Read the Full Refinancing Guide 
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