Links Property Finance · Free calculator from a Sydney mortgage broker: Offset Account Calculator

It depends on the balance you will realistically hold. Offset accounts usually sit inside a package with an annual fee, so the interest saved needs to exceed it.

Holding a few thousand dollars may not justify the fee; holding tens of thousands almost certainly does. Run your own numbers rather than accepting either the sales pitch or the dismissal.

Offset is a separate account holding your money; redraw is access to extra repayments you have already made into the loan. Both reduce interest.

Offset keeps the funds clearly yours, which is simpler if the property might become an investment later, because redrawn money can change how the debt is treated for tax.

Sometimes: some lenders allow several against one loan, others allow one, and some offer only a partial offset where a percentage of the balance counts. If you have several full offsets, their combined balance is what reduces the interest.

No, and that is the point of it. The interest calculation runs daily on the balance held, so money moving in and out changes the saving day to day. That flexibility is why offset suits people who want their emergency fund working without locking it away.

Yes, many people do: paying expenses from it through the month keeps the balance working while it sits, and it costs nothing.

The caution is only to keep enough discipline that the balance does not just drift down, since the benefit exists only while the money is there.