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What does a mortgage broker actually cost you?
Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 1 September 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer
Nothing, from you. My clients don't pay me. I charge the bank for the work that I do, and they pay me an upfront commission when the loan settles plus a small trail commission ongoing. There's no catch.
The four questions underneath that one are the ones worth asking: how exactly does the bank pay you, what's the catch, won't you push me to whoever pays most, and would I do better going straight to a bank. This page answers all four, in the order people ask them.
The four minute version, four questions stitched together. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.
1. How the bank pays me
When your loan settles, the lender pays an upfront commission that works out to roughly 0.65% of the settled loan amount, net of anything sitting in the offset. Then it pays a trail commission, usually around 0.15% of the balance, ongoing, so I can keep looking after you: pricing reviews, holding your bank accountable, making sure the loan still fits.
The reason the bank pays and you don't is that it has gained a new customer it didn't have to pay to attract. So it pays me instead, and the service is free to you.
2. The catch
The catch sits on my side of the table, not yours. If the loan is closed within 12 months, whether that's selling or moving to another lender, the bank takes back all of the upfront commission. Between 12 and 18 months it normally takes back half. After 18 to 24 months I'm in the clear.
So a loan you'd want to leave in a year is worth nothing to me. It has to be right for you the first time, and if it stops fitting later, I'll switch you again and the trail follows.
3. Won't you push me to whoever pays most?
No. All banks pretty much pay me the same amount, so I don't care which bank we go to. And there's a best interests duty over every recommendation: if a bank paid a higher commission but its rates were higher than another option, I could not justify taking you there. I'd be in breach if I did.
We've got to go to the right bank to fit your world, not mine.
4. Broker or straight to the bank?
Honest answer: some online only lenders don't work with brokers, and their rates sometimes undercut what I can offer. If a rate is all you care about, go apply with them, and I'll send you on your way.
What a broker sells is the guesswork. The bank only offers what it has to sell. Direct, you do the paperwork, guess at approval, and wait for the valuation before you know whether the advertised rate even applies to you. I sift through every bank's policy first, so you know your likelihood of approval before anything touches your file. For all that legwork, I charge the bank, not you.
The honest bit: free isn't the same as costless
Free to you is true. But there's a real cost in the system, and you should know who carries it. The bank does, and the bank recovers it the way banks recover everything: through the margin on the loan. That margin exists whether you use a broker or walk into a branch. The difference is that with a broker, part of it pays someone whose job is to compare the bank against its competitors, and who gets clawed back if the loan is wrong.
So the real question isn't whether a broker costs you. It's whether the bank's margin pays for someone on your side of the desk, or only for the bank's.
Want the numbers for your situation, with no bill at the end?
A 30 minute call. Your situation across the lenders I work with, the option I'd lean to and why, and where a direct lender might beat me. You leave with numbers. You don't leave with an invoice.
No cost to you, ever. The bank pays me when a loan settles. ยท How I get paid
Next question
What documents do you actually need from me for a home loan?Ten minutes of your time, and I'll show you where each one lives.
Related answers
How does a mortgage broker get paid, and what's the catch? Won't a broker just push me to whatever bank pays the most? Broker or going direct to the bank: which gets me the best deal? You're recommending a bank I've never heard of. Is it safe?Not your question? Book a call and ask it, or call 0437 189 939.