The refinance checklist

• Work out whether it is worth doing
• Find your current rate and balanceBoth are on your latest statement or in online banking. You cannot compare anything without them.
• Ask your current lender firstSometimes they will reprice to keep you, which is faster and cheaper than switching. Refinancing to a new lender should be a choice, not a reflex.
• Calculate the real savingCompare repayments at your rate against a realistic alternative, then subtract switching costs. The loan health check does the arithmetic.
• Check whether you are on a fixed rateBreaking a fixed loan can attract a break cost that outweighs the saving. Ask your lender for the figure before assuming anything.
• Count the costs of switchingDischarge fees, new lender application or valuation fees, and mortgage registration and deregistration. Modest individually, worth counting together.
• Check where you stand
• Estimate your equityThe lower your loan against the property's value, the better the pricing available. Under eighty per cent avoids mortgage insurance. The equity calculator gives a first read.
• Confirm your income is evidencedA refinance is a fresh application. If your income has changed since the original loan, particularly to self-employment or contract work, the assessment changes with it.
• Review your credit conductMissed payments in the last two years matter. So do recent applications for other credit.
• List every debt and limitThe new lender assesses all of it, including cards you no longer use and buy-now-pay-later accounts.
• Decide what you actually want from it
• A lower rateThe most common reason and the easiest to measure.
• Access to equityFor a renovation, an investment deposit or consolidating expensive debt. This changes the loan size and the assessment. How equity release works.
• Better structureAn offset account, splits between fixed and variable, or a shorter term. Sometimes structure is worth more than a small rate difference.
• Consolidating other debtsGenuinely useful when structured with a shorter term, quietly expensive when absorbed into thirty years. The debt consolidation guide shows both outcomes.
• Through the process
• Keep repayments currentEvery one of them, on time, throughout. A missed payment mid-application is avoidable damage.
• Expect a valuationThe new lender values the property, and that figure decides the pricing tier and how much equity is available.
• Do not close accounts earlyWait until the new loan settles and the old one is formally discharged.
• Redirect the saving deliberatelyIf the repayment drops and the money simply disappears into spending, the refinance achieved very little. Keeping repayments at the old level is where the benefit compounds.

Refinancing is not automatically worthwhile. Where the saving is small, the break costs are high or the loan is nearly paid off, staying put is frequently the better answer, and an honest broker will tell you so.