Credit portability: how to compare the proposal with your loan
Learn how credit portability works in Brazil, what the proposal has to show and how to compare effective cost, costs up front and term before you decide.
Another institution has offered to take over your loan, at a lower rate. Is it worth it? The answer is not in the rate it advertises but in the effective cost of the whole proposal, set against what you pay today, and in what you pay in all until the end. The rules cited here are Brazil's, and this guide describes what the rule says on the points that matter for the comparison: it does not point to an institution or say what to do.
What portability is
Portability is the transfer of a loan or a financing from the institution that granted it, the original institution, to another one, the proposing institution, at your request. The proposing institution pays off the old contract with its own money and you come to owe it, on new terms. You do not receive the money: it goes straight from one institution to the other, and what changes is the rate, the term and the installment of what you owe. Since the balance paid off is the same on both paths, comparing is a matter of seeing which one repays that balance at the lower cost.
What the rule guarantees
Portability is regulated by Resolução CMN 5.057/2022, amended since, among others, by Resolução CMN 5.265/2025, which added Open Finance as a way for the institutions to exchange information. In short, on the points that matter for the comparison:
- You are the one who asks, of the proposing institution, which takes the request to the original one with the proposal. The proposal carries the nominal and effective interest rates, the total effective cost (CET), the term, the amortization system and the amount of the installments (art. 7).
- In the same kind of credit, the amount and the term of the new operation cannot exceed the balance owed and the term left. Moving the contract to another kind of credit is possible, and then the term limit does not apply (art. 6).
- A higher installment needs your formal and specific agreement (art. 6, paragraph 1).
- Costs of the exchange: what the exchange of information and the transfer of funds between the institutions cost, and the reimbursement the original one may ask of the new one for the cost of originating the contract, cannot be passed on to you (arts. 15 and 16).
- Counter-offer and withdrawal in Open Finance: when the request runs through Open Finance, the original institution may make a counter-offer before the settlement, and you may withdraw the request at any time before it (Resolução Conjunta 15/2025).
The text of the rule is on the central bank's website, and it is the text that counts, not this summary. Rules change: check the version in force.
How to compare for real
Both paths start from the same balance. Staying is paying the installments that are left. Accepting is paying the proposal's installments, plus what it charges up front. Each has an effective rate, the one at which its installments repay the balance, and that is the one to compare, not the rate the proposal advertises: fees, tax and insurance built into the installments or charged at signing enter the effective cost and do not show in the rate. The contract check page does the same calculation to find the real rate of a contract from what it shows, and the guide on the total effective cost explains why it is the right number.
A hypothetical example, only to show the method: a loan with a balance of R$ 20,000.00 and 24 installments of R$ 1,118.26 to pay costs 2.50% a month, and R$ 26,838.24 is left to pay in all. A proposal of 24 installments of R$ 1,033.62, at a rate of 1.80% a month, has costs up front that change the result:
| Costs up front | Effective cost a month | Paid in all | Against staying |
|---|---|---|---|
| R$ 0.00 | 1.80% | R$ 24,806.88 | R$ 2,031.36 less |
| R$ 300.00 | 1.93% | R$ 25,106.88 | R$ 1,731.36 less |
| R$ 1,500.00 | 2.49% | R$ 26,306.88 | R$ 531.36 less |
| R$ 3,000.00 | 3.27% | R$ 27,806.88 | R$ 968.64 more |
The advertised rate is the same on all four lines. What changes the result is the costs charged up front.
The costs up front and the break-even
What you pay at signing is not lent, so it does not reduce the balance the installments repay: it works like a fee taken out of the amount received, and so it raises the effective cost. With R$ 300.00, the 1.80% rate becomes an effective cost of 1.93% a month. With R$ 1,500.00 it reaches 2.49%, almost the same as today's 2.50%.
The break-even says when that outlay pays back: it is the first month in which what the proposal saves on the installments, added up month by month, has covered the cost up front. In the example the installment falls R$ 84.64 a month, and the R$ 300.00 pays back in the fourth month, while the R$ 1,500.00 only pays back in the 18th. If you plan to settle the contract before the break-even, the costs up front do not pay back. Remember that, by the rule, the cost of the exchange between the institutions cannot be passed on to you: if the proposal charges something under that name, it is worth asking what it refers to.
The term misleads
A lower installment can come from a longer term, and a longer term adds more interest. A proposal of 120 installments of R$ 286.94 has an effective cost of 1.00% a month, lower than today's, and the installment falls from R$ 1,118.26 to R$ 286.94. But it adds up to R$ 34,432.80, which is R$ 7,594.56 more than the R$ 26,838.24 left to pay. The rate is lower because it is applied for longer, on a balance that comes down slowly.
That is why comparing by the rate is the one that holds, and the total paid is a check: when the two disagree, the term is the cause. In the same kind of credit the rule does not let the proposal pass the term left, so the case shows up when the proposal is of another kind of credit.
What the proposal has to show
Before you decide, the proposal has to carry at least what art. 7 of the rule lists: the nominal and effective rates, the CET, the term, the amortization system and the amount of the installments. Also check:
- whether the CET takes in the fees, the tax and the insurance the proposal charges;
- whether the balance owed is the one the original institution gave for the transfer, which is the one that counts;
- whether the installment goes up compared with today's, in which case the rule asks for your formal agreement;
- whether the credit life insurance is mandatory and what it costs a month.
How Finasst compares
On the Credit portability page, enter the balance owed, the installment and the installments left on your loan, describe the proposal by its installment and term (or by its effective rate), and enter the costs it charges up front. The result appears at once, with no account needed: the rate you pay today, the effective cost of the proposal, how much you pay in all on each path and in which month the costs pay back. The page describes what the calculations show, with the assumptions it states, and does not point to an institution or recommend accepting or refusing. To see where the rate falls among those reported to the central bank, see the guide on market rates.
This guide is educational and informational. It is not financial, legal or investment advice and it does not know your situation. Example figures are illustrative, and rules change: check the current ones before deciding. Legal Notice