Okay be honest: how many of you switched off three minutes into the whole “why you should refinance” spiel by the mortgage broker/banker? Great, the three of you who paid attention can skip this article.

The rest of you, you might want to take note of how refinancing into a cheaper loan can go wrong:

Refinancing, like most things involving a bank, isn’t free. There’s a conveyancing fee of between $2,500 to $3,000, and some banks will stick you with other fees as well, like making you pay $500 for a valuation.

Now if you’re intending to sell, you want to make sure you make back the cost of refinancing, plus a little bit extra. So, say you have a loan for $1.125 million, at two per cent interest for 30 years. That means you’re paying $4,158 per month.