Use our mortgage calculator to check how much a rate cut would affect you

Australian borrowers, bankers and politicians are awaiting the Reserve Bank’s announcement at 2.30pm on interest rates where the market expects it to cut the official cash rate by 0.25 percentage points from 4.35 per cent.

But the RBA has surprised commentators before and commercial banks including the Big Four make their own decisions about whether to pass on rate cuts to their mortgage rates. This masthead’s interest rate calculator allows you to gauge how much money you would save from a rate cut.

Enter your loan amount, the length of your loan, and your existing interest rate, then select the interest rate change you expect to get your new monthly repayment.

Calculations are based on monthly fixed interest rate increases on principal loan amount excluding requisite monthly repayments, adjustments to repayment amounts, or additional repayment instalments.

Whether a rate cut comes through today is crucial to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision on when to hold the next election, which is due by mid-May at the latest, and Labor’s hopes of winning the contest.

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The government and opposition will also be watching closely to see if the bank signals more rate cuts are likely in coming months, which could help Labor advance a narrative that it has responsibly managed the economy and helped curtail inflation.

We will have full coverage of the RBA’s decision this afternoon from our journalists and expert commentators, including senior economics correspondent Shane Wright, chief political correspondent David Crowe, The Sydney Morning Herald’s economics editor Ross Gittins, and economics writer Millie Muroi.

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