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[RateGap](/)every home loan rate lenders publish, compared

# What an offset account costs

An offset account is a bank account tied to your loan. Money in it counts as if
  you had paid it off the loan, for as long as it sits there. I measured what lenders charge for
  one.

[Justin Wong](/about), first published 16 September 2026.
    The figures are read again every morning.

Rates checked **Monday 2 November at 7:01 am** (Sydney time) · [browse all the data](/data)

For a home you live in, paying it down, **316 variable loans**
      anyone could take were read Monday 2 November. 198 of them list an offset account among their
      published features. Among those, the going rate is **5.89%**,
      against 5.85% across every loan and 5.89% among loans whose feature list has no offset. So at the going rate, an offset costs 0.04 points this morning.

The going rate is where a **third distinct lender** appears in the
  sorted list, so one lender's odd price cannot set it.

A feature list is what the lender published, not everything it sells. A loan whose list has
  no offset may still come with one when you ask. So this page reads the lists as written.
  [The comparison](/), for a borrower who needs an offset, leaves out a loan
  whose list has no offset. A loan that publishes no list at all is kept, in a second run shown
  beside the first. The two are never averaged.

## Three ways of counting

  | Loan | Going | Lowest | Middle | Lenders | Loans |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Every loan anyone could take | **5.85%** | 5.69% | 6.54% | 104 | 316 |
| Loans listing an offset | **5.89%** | 5.69% | 6.69% | 91 | 198 |
| Loans listing features, but no offset | **5.89%** | 5.85% | 6.34% | 70 | 118 |

## What an offset is worth to you

That depends on one number: how much you keep in it. Money in an offset earns you your loan
  rate, tax free, for as long as it is there. Keep little in it and a loan without one at a lower
  rate wins. Keep a lot in it and the offset wins. Work it through on
  [how fast to pay it off](/paying-it-off).

  **How this is worked out, and what it does not tell you**

## How it is worked out

    1. Rates come from each lender's own feed under the Consumer Data Right, read each
    morning. Nobody types one in.
    2. A rate counts only if anyone could take it. Loans for particular groups, and lenders the
    capture cannot reach, are left out.
    3. Each loan counts once per profile, at its lowest advertised rate.
    4. Variable loans for a home you live in, paying it down only. An offset on an interest-only or investment
    loan is priced the same way and can be read off the comparison for that loan.
    5. "Lists an offset" means the lender's published feature list for the loan names one. A
    lender that offers an offset and leaves it off the list is counted as listing none.

## What it does not tell you

    - **Advertised rates, not offers.** A lender can say no.
    - **New-customer prices.** What existing customers pay is published
    nowhere.
    - **The rate is not the cost.** Fees sit outside it.
    [What a comparison rate adds](/research/comparison-rates).

The data is [free to download](/data), so any figure here can
  be checked.

The other questions

        - [Are you paying more than you need to?](/)
              your rate against every lender publishing one- [How fast should you pay it off?](/paying-it-off)
              term, extra repayments, interest only- [Don't have a loan yet?](/buying)
              what to look at before you pick one- [What does each lender advertise?](/lenders)
              every lender that publishes rates, a page each- [What moved this week?](/market/changes-this-week)
              which lenders changed an advertised rate- [Where do these numbers come from?](/data)
              every published rate, and how fresh it is

**Free, and not advice.** It knows only what the lender publishes, not what you could negotiate. A licensed broker does
    this for a living. [Who made this](/about).
    [What this site collects](/privacy).

      **More from the data**

Building something with this? There is
      [an API](/api), and [the data is free](/data).

This morning: [the market](/market),
    [variable rates](/market/variable-rates),
    [fixed rates](/market/fixed-rates) and
    [what moved this week](/market/changes-this-week).

Found in the data: [what lenders charge above 80%](/research/lvr-bands),
    [the rate a fixed loan rolls onto](/research/revert-rates) and
    [what a comparison rate adds](/research/comparison-rates). Also
    [what an offset costs](/research/offset-accounts), and
    [what investors pay on top](/research/investor-premium).