The Reserve Bank announced a rise in the cash rate on 29 September 2026. This page is for the call to your bank about it. You do not need to understand monetary policy to make it. The person on the other end is paid to know the answer.
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
- One question is enough. Skip anything that is not the right question to ask right now. The list keeps
- If an answer confuses you, that is information about the answer. Ask them to say it again in plain terms. That request is allowed too
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.
The eight questions
1. "What rate am I on today, and what rate are you offering a new customer for the same product?"
Lenders price existing and new customers separately, and the two numbers are not published side by side anywhere you would come across them.
What the answer tells you: two numbers, in the lender's own words. A rate is set against a whole picture, including the loan, the security and the borrower, so two numbers are not a comparison and not a verdict.
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.
5. "What is my savings account paying today, and is any of that rate conditional?"
The cash rate reaches deposits too. Some savings rates are made of a base rate plus a bonus part you only earn if you meet certain conditions.
What the answer tells you: the rate you are earning, and what it depends on.
6. "How was this rate set for me, and what would change it?"
A rate is the output of a process, and a process has inputs.
What the answer tells you: which of those inputs the lender is willing to name.
7. "What has come out of this account in fees over the last twelve months, in dollars?"
Fees are set out in a schedule at the start and charged in small pieces forever after.
What the answer tells you: one annual number instead of twelve small ones.
8. "Can you send me that in writing, and how long will it take?"
The call ends. The email stays.
What the answer tells you: whether you will have something to read later, when you are not on hold.
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.
After the call
Write the answers next to the rate you wrote down before you rang. Two columns, one pen. Nothing here needs deciding on the phone.
More questions, for your super fund, your employer and a first meeting with a financial adviser, are in What to Ask.
Every week I send one letter, called Field Notes. One idea from the system that shapes your money, explained plainly, with one small thing to pay attention to. You are already on the list, so the next one will find you.