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Car & vehicle finance
Sort the finance before you fall in love with the car.
Walk in knowing exactly what you can spend and what it will cost you a month, and the conversation at the dealership becomes a much shorter one.
Car & vehicle finance
The worst place to arrange a car loan is at the car yard.
It is a good day. You have driven the car, you like it, and someone is walking you across the showroom to a desk where the finance gets done. Twenty minutes later, on a Saturday afternoon, with the keys almost in your hand, you have agreed to something you will be paying for every month for the next five years. Nobody makes their sharpest financial decision in that chair.
I have spent twenty-one years in lending, with more than twenty-five lenders on one panel, and I would far rather have this conversation with you the week before. You deal with me from the first phone call through to the money landing — and I will tell you what the car actually costs to own, not just what the repayment can be made to look like.
The part worth knowing is that on a car loan, the interest rate is only one of four numbers that matter. The term, the balloon payment and the fees move the real cost just as much, and they are far easier to disguise. Two loans quoted at the same rate can differ by thousands by the time you have finished paying for the car.
Start to finish
How it works
Usually quicker than a mortgage by a wide margin — but the order matters more than people expect.
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A conversation, not an application
Thirty minutes, and nothing touches your credit file. What you're buying, roughly what you want to spend, whether it's private or for work, and what else is going on — because if there's a house in the next year or two, that changes my advice entirely.
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The numbers, in writing
What you can borrow and what it costs a month — over a few different terms, so you can see what stretching the loan out actually buys you and what it costs. With and without a balloon, if one is on the table.
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Pre-approval, before you go shopping
This is the step most people skip and the one that saves them the most. You walk in with your finance already sorted, which means you are negotiating on the price of the car and nothing else — and you cannot be talked into a bigger budget than the one you arrived with.
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Find the car, and I finish the loan
Once you have chosen it, send me the details. Dealer or private sale, the paperwork comes back to me and the funds go where they need to go.
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Settlement, and a note in the diary
Car loans are usually fixed, so there is less to review year to year than on a mortgage. What does matter is the end of the term — particularly if there's a balloon — and that gets diarised well before it arrives rather than landing as a surprise.
Five ways this starts
The situations I see most often
| Situation | Who it suits | What I'd tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Replacing the family car | A household upgrading or replacing what died | The most common one, and the one most often arranged badly. A secured car loan is usually a good deal cheaper than the personal loan people reach for by default. |
| A ute or van for the business | A tradesperson or sole trader | Bought for work, this is usually a chattel mortgage rather than a consumer loan, and it is treated differently for both tax and lending. Your accountant decides which, and I'll structure it to suit. |
| A car before a house | Anyone buying property in the next year or two | The one worth a phone call before you commit. A car loan reduces what a lender will advance you on a mortgage by considerably more than the repayment alone suggests. |
| A private sale, or an older car | A buyer who's found the right car outside a dealership | Perfectly fundable, but the lender panel narrows and the pricing changes with the age of the vehicle. Worth checking before you shake hands rather than after. |
| A balloon payment coming due | Someone two months from the end of a lease or loan | You have three options — pay it, refinance it, or sell the car — and I'll walk you through what each one costs before you decide. This is a much better conversation to have early than in the last fortnight. |
Financing a truck, trailer, excavator or plant instead? That's on the truck and equipment finance page.
Straight about it
What it costs you
On a car loan for personal use, the lender pays me and you pay me nothing. That commission is disclosed to you in writing before you sign anything — you will see what I am paid, by whom, on the paperwork rather than having to ask.
A vehicle bought for business purposes works differently, because business lending sits outside the consumer credit rules. That is set out on the truck and equipment finance page and the arrangement is the same here.
The costs that are actually yours
- Lender establishment feeCharged on most car loans, and on a loan this size it moves the real cost more than people expect — which is exactly why the comparison rate matters here more than it does on a mortgage.
- Monthly account feeSmall, but it runs for the life of the loan. Worth adding up over five years before you decide a rate is competitive.
- Stamp duty, registration and CTPPayable on the vehicle itself. These can usually be financed along with the car, though whether they should be is a separate question.
- Comprehensive insuranceNot optional. A lender taking the car as security will require it to be insured for the life of the loan.
- Early repayment costsMost car loans are fixed, so paying one out early — including when you sell the car — can carry a break cost. I'll show you that figure before you sign, not when you ring up to settle it.
Later, not now
What to have ready
Nothing at all for the first conversation. This is what we'll want to get you pre-approved.
- IdentificationDriver licence, and a second form of photo ID if you have one handy.
- If you're on a wageYour two most recent payslips, and usually three months of bank statements.
- If your income comes from an ABNYour last tax return and notice of assessment, plus recent business bank statements. One year is often enough on a car loan — less than lenders want for a mortgage.
- Your existing commitmentsA rough list of other loans, card limits and buy-now-pay-later accounts. Limits count against you whether you use them or not, so it's worth being complete.
- The car, once you've found itThe dealer invoice, or for a private sale, the seller's details and the registration.
No dead ends
Where it gets hard, and what I do about it
Almost none of these are about whether you can get a car loan. They are about what the cheap-looking one quietly costs you.
Tell me where you're stuck-
The finance desk is very good at its job
Arranging it where you buy the car is genuinely convenient, and that convenience is the product. The person across the desk is paid to sell cars, the loan is part of the sale, and the figure you are shown is a monthly repayment rather than a total cost.
Flex commissions — where a dealer could lift your interest rate and keep the difference — were banned back in 2018, so that particular problem is gone. What remains is simpler: one option, presented under time pressure, with no idea what else was available.
What I do about itCome to me first and you'll have a written comparison across several lenders before you ever walk in, plus a pre-approval in your pocket. If the dealer then beats it, take their deal with my blessing — you'll know it's genuinely better because you have something to measure it against.
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You're buying a car a few months before a house
This is the one that costs people real money, and it is almost always an accident. A car loan does not just reduce your borrowing capacity by its repayment — lenders treat the commitment far more harshly than that, and a modest car loan can take a six-figure bite out of what you'll be advanced on a mortgage.
What I do about itI'd rather lose the car loan than cost you the house. If a property purchase is anywhere in the next year or two, we work out the mortgage first and then decide what to do about the car — which sometimes means a smaller loan, sometimes a different order, and occasionally buying something cheaper for now.
Because I handle both, that conversation actually happens. It is set out in more detail on the home loans page.
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The balloon payment that made it look affordable
A balloon — a large lump sum left owing at the end of the term — pulls the monthly repayment down to something comfortable. It does not reduce what you owe. You are paying interest on that amount the whole way through and it is still sitting there in five years, against a car now worth considerably less than it was.
What I do about itBalloons are not automatically wrong. On a work vehicle you'll replace on a cycle, one can make good sense. On the family car it usually just moves the problem.
You'll see both versions side by side — with and without — including the total you'll have paid by the end of each. Then you decide, with the whole number in front of you.
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The car is older, or it is a private sale
Lenders care about the age of the vehicle, because it is their security. Past a certain point, options narrow, rates rise and terms shorten. Private sales are fundable but handled differently, and some lenders simply will not.
What I do about itChecking this takes one phone call and it is best made before you have agreed a price with someone. I'll tell you which lenders will fund the car you're actually looking at, and what it changes — and if it is going to be expensive to finance, that is worth knowing while you can still look at something else.
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Your income comes from an ABN
Self-employed people are routinely pushed towards low-doc products at higher rates for a car loan, on the assumption that proving the income is too hard to bother with.
What I do about itUsually it isn't. A car loan is a smaller, shorter commitment than a mortgage and several lenders on my panel will assess one year of returns at ordinary rates. The add-back work is the same work I do on a home loan, described on the home loans page — there is just less of it.
Know your number before you start looking.
One call, no credit enquiry, no obligation. Thirty minutes now is worth a great deal more than thirty minutes at the finance desk.
Asked on the phone
Questions people are too polite to ask
If yours isn't here, call and ask it. Ten minutes on the phone beats a year of wondering.
Ask Alen directlyShould I just use the dealer's finance?
Sometimes the dealer's offer genuinely is the best one, particularly on a new car where the manufacturer is subsidising the rate to move stock. The problem is never that dealer finance is always bad — it is that you have nothing to compare it against while you're sitting there.
Get a written comparison first. If the dealer beats it, take it. You'll just be taking it knowing that it's actually better.
What is a balloon payment, and should I have one?
It's a large amount left owing at the end of the loan. It makes the monthly repayment smaller, and it does not make the debt smaller — you pay interest on it the whole term and then still have to deal with it. You'll also hear it called a residual, particularly on a lease. Same idea, slightly different paperwork.
It can suit a work vehicle you intend to replace on a cycle. On a family car it usually just defers the problem to a point where the car is worth less than the amount owing. Ask to see the total cost both ways before deciding.
Can I get approved before I've chosen a car?
Yes, and you should. Pre-approval tells you your actual budget and takes the finance conversation out of the showroom entirely, which changes the negotiation in your favour more than most people realise.
It also means that when you do find the right car, you're not waiting on an approval while somebody else puts a deposit on it.
Will a car loan affect my home loan?
Yes, and by more than you would guess. Lenders don't simply subtract the repayment — the commitment is assessed in a way that can reduce your borrowing capacity by a six-figure sum on a fairly ordinary car loan.
If a property purchase is anywhere on the horizon, that is the first thing to talk about, and it is the main reason to have this conversation with a mortgage broker rather than at a car yard.
Can I finance a private sale or an older car?
Usually, yes. Both narrow the field of lenders willing to help and both affect the rate and the term available, because the car is the lender's security and its age matters to them.
It takes one phone call to find out where a particular car sits. Worth making before you agree on a price.
Do I need a deposit?
Not always — a secured car loan can often cover the full purchase price, and sometimes the on-road costs with it. Whether it should is a different question, because financing every last dollar means owing more than the car is worth for the first year or two.
A deposit also tends to improve the rate you're offered, so it is worth running both ways before you decide.
Also on the site
One broker for all your financing needs
Residential
Home loans
If there's a house in the next year or two, the order you do these in matters a great deal. Start here.
Commercial
Truck & equipment finance
Trucks, trailers, plant and the machinery that earns its keep — structured so it doesn't cost you the home loan.
Let's talk
Request a call back
Tell me roughly what you're after and when. No calendar to wrestle with — I'll call you.
Twenty minutes at a desk you didn't choose.
Twenty-one years in lending, more than twenty-five lenders, and one person handling the car, the house and the business.