Roll high-interest credit cards, personal loans and car finance into your home loan — but only when the maths actually puts you ahead, not just the next 12 months.
If you're juggling credit cards at 18% p.a., a personal loan, a car loan and maybe some BNPL — you're not alone. The average non-mortgage debt in Australia is now over $17,000, and most of it is sitting on rates four times higher than a home loan.
Done right, debt consolidation can give you back hundreds — sometimes over a thousand — a month in cash flow. Done wrong, it stretches three years of pain over thirty. We tell you which one your situation actually is — before you sign anything.
Our previous broker just wanted to dump everything onto a 28-year mortgage. Pilbara Finance split the consolidated portion onto 6 years and showed us the actual lifetime cost. That's how we knew they weren't selling us the lazy answer.
Three things change when we structure this the right way.
Trade six due dates and an 18.6% average credit card rate for one repayment at a home loan rate. Most of our clients see hundreds, sometimes over a thousand a month come back to them straight away. That's not magic — it's just stopping the bleeding.
Here's where most brokers go quiet: roll a $20,000 credit card into your home loan and pay it over 30 years, you'll pay back nearly double. We split the consolidated portion onto a 5–7 year schedule so you actually clear the debt — not just defer it.
Sometimes consolidation isn't the answer. Sometimes a balance transfer card, a hardship variation with your current lender, or a budget reset is the smarter move. We'll tell you when that's the case — even though it costs us the deal.
Three steps, no upselling, no surprises.
Tell us what you owe, what you're paying, and where you're feeling the squeeze. We'll add up your current monthly debt repayments, your interest costs over the next 5 years if nothing changes, and what your borrowing position actually looks like. No judgement — most people don't realise how much they're paying in interest until someone shows them the total.
We compare your current setup against three options: a top-up with your existing lender, a full refinance to a sharper lender, or leaving things as they are with a different repayment strategy. You see all three side by side — total interest paid, monthly cash flow, when you're debt-free. If consolidation isn't the winner, we say so.
If consolidation makes sense, we don't just dump your debts into a 30-year mortgage and walk away. We build a structured pay-down — typically a separate split or scheduled extra repayments — so the consolidated portion is gone in 5–7 years, not 30. That's the difference between a fix and a Band-Aid.
Tell us a few quick details. We'll show your current monthly outflow, what consolidation drops it to, and the trap of spreading the lot over 30 years.
The balance still owing, and the rate you're currently paying.
We assume 25 years remaining on your existing home loan to estimate your current monthly principal and interest (P&I). We'll get the actual number on the call.
High-rate stuff — credit cards, personal loans, car loans. The expensive money.
Indicative rates: credit cards ~19.99% (paying down over 4 yrs), personal/car ~10.99% (over 5 yrs). We model these as you actually clearing them, not just paying minimums.
All consolidated debt at the home loan rate. Real savings start here.
This is where the real money is. Spreading the lot over 30 years feels good monthly — and costs you tens of thousands.
Split structures put the consolidated consumer-debt portion on its own faster repayment schedule (5 or 7 yrs), while leaving the home loan portion on a 30-year principal and interest (P&I) schedule — keeping cash-flow relief without paying home-loan interest on the consumer debt for decades.
Estimate at the chosen rate. Real pricing depends on the lender and the equity in your property.
Splits clear the consumer-debt portion in 5 or 7 years on a separate schedule, then leave you with just the home loan. Spreading drops your monthly the most — but you pay home-loan interest on the consumer debt for decades. The total-cost figures are the killer.
Have a quick chat with a Pilbara Finance broker. We'll model your specific debt mix, find the right lender, and structure the splits so consolidation actually saves you money — not just buys you breathing room.
Estimates only. This calculator does not assess credit and is not a credit offer. Current scenario assumes you actually clear consumer debt over realistic horizons (credit cards over 4 yrs at 19.99%, personal/car loans over 5 yrs at 10.99%) — not minimum payments. Existing home loan is modelled with 25 years remaining. Real numbers depend on your specific debt mix, the lender's policy on what can be rolled in, and the equity in your property. Pilbara Equities Pty Ltd, CRN 478535, of Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd, ACL 387025.
Consolidation is genuinely useful. It's also genuinely misused. Here's how to tell the difference.
A $25,000 credit card debt at 18% paid off over 4 years costs you about $9,800 in interest. Roll that same $25,000 into a home loan at 5.59% over the remaining 28 years of your mortgage — and you'll pay around $20,500 in interest. Same starting debt. More than double the lifetime cost.
The fix is simple but it has to be deliberate: when we consolidate, we set up a separate split or scheduled extra repayments to clear the consolidated portion in 5–7 years. You get the cash flow relief now and you get out of debt sooner. Without that structure, consolidation just buys you time at a much higher final cost.
Most everyday debt can be consolidated into a home loan: credit cards, personal loans, car loans, store cards, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) balances, overdrafts, and tax debts in some cases. We'll go through each one with you and decide which makes sense to include.
Sometimes it's better to leave a low-rate car loan running and only consolidate the high-rate stuff. Some lenders cap how many consumer debts they'll roll in at once. Some won't accept tax debt at all. We know the policies — you don't have to.
Consolidating debts means borrowing more against your home. If your loan plus the debts you're rolling in pushes your loan-to-value ratio (LVR) above 80%, you'll typically trigger Lender's Mortgage Insurance — which can add anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000+ to the cost.
Sometimes it's still worth it. Sometimes it kills the deal. We model both scenarios with and without LMI so you see whether the saving still stacks up after the cost of getting there. This is exactly the kind of number that gets glossed over in a 10-minute bank phone call.
There are two ways to refinance: a rate-and-term refinance just swaps your loan to a sharper rate, no extra borrowing. A cash-out (or top-up) refinance is what consolidation actually is — you increase the loan to pay out other debts. Lenders treat these very differently.
Some banks have stricter policies on cash-out refinances, especially over certain amounts or for non-property purposes. We know which lenders are comfortable with debt consolidation cash-outs, which want to see proof of how the funds will be used, and which won't play. That's the difference between a smooth approval and three months of back-and-forth.
If you don't have enough equity to keep your LVR under 80% after rolling debts in, the LMI can swallow the saving. If your spending habits are still trending upward, consolidation just clears space on the credit cards to fill them up again — we've seen people end up with the consolidated debt plus fresh credit card balances 12 months later.
If the issue is genuine financial hardship, your current lender's hardship team and the National Debt Helpline (1800 007 007) are often a better first call than refinancing. We'll point you that way if that's what your situation needs.
How we structured a consolidation that actually got Mark and Steph ahead — not just paying less for longer.
Mark and Steph came to us in early 2026 with the same story we hear every week. Two kids, dual income, $720,000 home with $410,000 owing, and four consumer debts that had crept up over three years: a $24,000 credit card balance at 19.4%, an $18,000 car loan at 9.8%, a $9,000 personal loan at 12.5%, and $3,000 in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) balances. Total monthly repayments across the four: around $1,640. They were paying minimums on the cards and watching the balances barely move.
Their broker before us had quoted them a straight refinance — roll everything into the home loan over 28 years and call it done. We ran the maths and showed them the trap: monthly saving $1,180, but lifetime interest cost on those four debts would have nearly doubled. So we restructured: refinanced the $410,000 home loan to 5.59% with a sharper lender, rolled the $54,000 of consumer debt onto a separate 6-year split inside the same loan, set up automatic extra repayments matching what they'd been paying before, and locked in an offset account for what was left over. Outcome: monthly cash flow improved by $1,180, the consolidated debt is now scheduled to clear in 6 years not 30, and the credit cards are closed. They're not just paying less — they're getting out of debt for good.
Composite scenario built from multiple real Pilbara Finance debt consolidation refinance transactions. Names, locations and identifying details are illustrative; the timeline, structure and pricing reflect the kind of outcomes our 60+ residential lender panel produces in 2026.
The questions clients actually ask us — answered in plain English.
Real reviews from real Google. No curated screenshots, no cherry-picked quotes.
Get Started
Takes about 60 seconds. We'll call you back within the hour.
A few quick details and we'll give you a ring. Usually takes about 30 seconds.
Mon–Fri 7am–8pm · Sat–Sun 7am–12pm WA time
So we know who we're talking to.
We'll flick a confirmation through so you know we've got it.
This is what we'll use to give you a ring.
Here's what we've got. Hit send and we'll be in touch, or add a quick note first if you want.
Doesn't need to be long — just anything you reckon we should know before we call.
We're on it. One of our brokers will give you a ring shortly.
Want to lock in a time or have a chat right now?
We'll give you a call then — usually won't take more than 20 minutes.
Calendar not loading? Open it in a new tab →
Send through your home loan balance and a quick list of your other debts. We'll come back with a clear read on whether consolidation actually puts you ahead — and if it does, exactly how much you'd save and how fast you'd be debt-free. If it doesn't stack up, we'll tell you that too, and point you at what does.
"They didn't just dump our debts onto a 30-year mortgage like the last broker wanted to. They split it onto a 6-year plan so we'll actually be debt-free."
Not carrying consumer debt but still want a sharper rate and structure? We review the rate, the policy fit, and the lifetime cost — not just the headline number.
Learn moreSole traders, contractors, FIFO and business owners — including consolidation scenarios with non-Pay As You Go (PAYG) income. We know which lenders actually understand variable income.
Learn moreThe standard home loan — without the standard runaround. Fixed, variable, offset, redraw, lender's choice. We work the panel.
Learn more