The Reserve Bank announced a rise in the cash rate on 29 September 2026. Your bank may already have written to you about it, in a letter that is easy to skim.
This page is for the call you might make instead. You do not need to understand monetary policy to ring your bank. The person on the other end is paid to know the answer. Answering is their job, and hold music is not a test of character.
General education only. Not financial advice.
Before you ring
- Your statement and your account or loan number. That is all you need to have ready
- Write down the rate on your latest statement. It is the number every answer gets held against
- A pen. A phone answer is not a record, and you will not remember the numbers by dinner
- Skip anything that is not the right question to ask right now. The list keeps
Every question has three parts: the words to use, why it is a fair thing to ask, and what the answer tells you. None of them says what to do next. What to do with an answer is yours, or a licensed professional's.
Three of the eight are on this page, in full. The other five are one step away.
Three of the eight
2. "Has the rate on this account changed since the Reserve Bank's decision, and from what date?"
The cash rate has a strong influence on the rates banks set. It does not set them. Your bank decides whether to move, by how much, and when.
What the answer tells you: whether the change reached you, and the date it did.
3. "What is my repayment now, in dollars, and on what date does it change?"
A rate is a percentage. A repayment is money leaving your account. They are two different numbers, and they do not always change on the same day.
What the answer tells you: the figure your budget meets, and when it meets it.
4. "When the rate changes, does my repayment change with it, or does something else change instead?"
Loans are not all built the same way, and the answer is in your loan's terms and your lender's practice, not in the news.
What the answer tells you: how your particular loan responds to a rate change, in the lender's words.
Where should I send the other five?
The rate a new customer is offered, your savings rate, your fees, how your rate was set, and getting it all in writing.
Here they are: all eight questions, and what the answers mean. Keep the link. The page stays put.
If repayments are getting hard
This is a different call, and it has its own door.
ASIC's Moneysmart says all lenders have hardship teams. You can ask to speak to the lender's hardship officer. The lender must write to you within 21 days to tell you the outcome. If it asks you for more information, the 21 days run from when you give it. A hardship arrangement can mean the lender changes your loan terms, or pauses or reduces repayments for a time.
If the lender says no, it has to give you reasons. You can complain to the lender's internal dispute team, and after that to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, which is free and independent.
The National Debt Helpline offers free financial counselling on 1800 007 007.
Asking is not failing. It is the process the system built for exactly this.
What this is
It is general financial education. It explains how a thing works and hands you the words to ask about it. It does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it names no product, no bank and no lender. Nothing here is scored, and none of it tells you what to do with an answer.
There are more questions, for your super fund, your employer and a first meeting with a financial adviser, in What to Ask.