Debt Consolidation Calculator

A debt consolidation calculator estimates the effect of combining several debts into a single loan, usually by refinancing your home loan. You enter your balances, rates and repayments. It shows your current monthly outlay, your new one, and the difference over time.

Debt consolidation means combining multiple debts, such as credit cards, personal loans and car finance, into one loan, often a home loan refinance, at a lower interest rate. The appeal is a lower rate and a single repayment. The risk is that you spread short-term debts over a much longer term.

The Hub calculator helps you weigh the two. It's useful when you're carrying several balances at different rates, when credit card interest is chewing through your budget, or when you're already thinking about a refinance and wondering whether to fold other debts in.

This page covers the calculator. If you want to understand the service behind it, read our debt consolidation service page, which explains how a broker structures and arranges a consolidation.

List every debt you want to consolidate with its balance, interest rate and monthly repayment. Enter your proposed new loan rate and term. The calculator adds up your current costs, compares them with the consolidated loan and shows the monthly saving and total interest difference.

Here's the process:

1. Gather your statements. You'll need balances, rates and repayments for each card and loan.
2. Enter each debt in the calculator.
3. Enter the rate and term for the new loan, or your current home loan if you'd add the debts to it.
4. Read the monthly repayment before and after.
5. Check the total interest over the full term, and compare it with what you'd pay if you cleared the debts on their current schedule.
6. Test a shorter term to see how much of the saving you can keep without stretching the debt.

A worked example

Say you owe $18,000 on two credit cards at about 20% and $12,000 on a personal loan at 11%. That's $30,000 of non-mortgage debt. Rolled into a home loan at a much lower rate, your monthly repayments on those debts may drop sharply. But if the new loan runs 25 or 30 years, you could pay more interest overall, even at the lower rate.

Consolidating $30,000 of credit card and personal loan debt into a 30-year home loan can cut monthly repayments but increase total interest, unless the borrower keeps making repayments at the old level.

The trick is to keep paying what you were paying. If you consolidate and then maintain your old repayment amount, the debt clears far faster and you keep the interest saving. The calculator lets you test that.

The main ways to consolidate are refinancing your home loan, taking a personal loan, or using a balance transfer card. Each suits a different situation. Home loan refinancing usually offers the lowest rate but the longest term, so it needs the most discipline.

Consolidating through a refinance can involve discharge fees, application fees, valuation fees and, if your new LVR goes above 80%, lenders mortgage insurance. Some lenders waive some of these. The calculator's saving should be weighed against those one-off costs, not read in isolation.

• Exit or discharge fees from your current lender.
• Application and valuation fees at the new lender, which some lenders waive.
• LMI if the combined loan pushes your LVR above 80% (Mozo, 2026). Use the LVR Calculator to check.
• Break costs if you're leaving a fixed rate early. See the Fix or Float page for how these work.

A saving of $300 a month sounds strong, but if the process costs $2,000 in fees, it takes about seven months to break even. Include one-off costs in your comparison.

Consolidation suits borrowers with equity, steady income and a plan to pay debt down. It doesn't suit people who'd run up their cards again, or who are close to paying their debts off anyway. Being honest about your spending habits matters more than any calculator.

Consolidation may suit you if you have credit card or personal loan balances at rates well above your home loan, if you have equity in your home, and if you can commit to paying the consolidated loan down faster than the minimum.

It may not suit you if you're only a year or two from clearing the debts, if the fees outweigh the saving, or if you might use the freed-up credit again.

If you're struggling with repayments, free financial counselling is available in Australia. The National Debt Helpline (1800 007 007) offers confidential help, and MoneySmart has independent guides.

After you consolidate, your repayments usually fall because the debt is spread over a longer term at a lower rate. Your total interest can still rise if you make only the minimum repayment. The safest approach is to keep paying at your old level and treat the saving as extra debt reduction.

Think of it in two numbers. The first is your required repayment, which the lender sets. The second is the repayment you choose to make. If you were paying $900 a month across your cards and personal loan, and your new required repayment is $600, you have a choice. Take the $300 as spending money, or send it to the loan and clear the balance years sooner.

Many borrowers set up an automatic transfer for the difference on the day the loan settles. It removes the temptation. Some lenders also let you split the consolidated amount into its own loan, so you can watch that balance fall separately from your main mortgage. Ask your broker whether that structure is available.

One more point on cards. Once the balances are cleared, many people keep the accounts open. If you do, consider lowering the limits or removing the cards from your wallet and wallet apps. A clear card with a $15,000 limit is a risk if the habit that built the balance hasn't changed.