Home/Specialist lending
Specialist & non-conforming lending
A no from one lender isn't a no from the market.
Defaults, arrears, a discharged bankruptcy, an ATO debt. Honest odds, no theatre — and a plan for getting back to an ordinary rate.
Specialist lending
The goal isn't this loan. It's the one after it.
Something on your file is in the way. A default from a business that didn't make it, a run of late payments through a separation, a bankruptcy you were discharged from years ago. A bank has said no, probably without explaining why, and it is a short step from there to assuming the answer is no everywhere.
I have spent twenty-one years in lending, with more than twenty-five lenders on one panel, and a decent share of my work is files the majors won't read properly. Specialist lenders are not loan sharks — they are regulated lenders who assess the same information and price for the risk they are taking. The rate is higher. That is the trade, and it should be stated plainly rather than buried.
The part that matters most is what comes next. Specialist finance is meant to be temporary. You borrow at a specialist rate now, you keep the payments clean, and in a couple of years the file looks different enough to move you to a mainstream lender at an ordinary rate. If nobody has set out that second step for you, you have been sold half a plan.
Start to finish
How it works
The first two steps are about finding out where you actually stand, which is usually different from where you think you stand.
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Tell me what happened
Thirty minutes, and nothing touches your credit file. What went wrong, roughly when, and whether it's resolved. You will not get a lecture — I have seen all of it before, and the circumstances usually matter more to a lender than the listing does.
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We read your actual credit file
Not your recollection of it. You are entitled to a free copy, and people are regularly surprised — a default they thought was removed, or one that should never have been listed. We work from the document, not the memory of it.
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Honest odds, before any application
Which lenders would consider this, what rate band it sits in, and how much deposit or equity it needs. If the answer is that nobody will fund it today, I will tell you that and tell you what would change it.
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One application, to the right lender
This matters more here than anywhere else on the site. Every application marks your file for five years, and a scatter of recent enquiries makes you look desperate to the next lender who reads it. We go once, to the lender most likely to say yes.
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The exit plan, diarised
We set a date to review it — usually once there's enough clean repayment history to change the picture. That review is the whole point of the exercise, and it goes in the diary at settlement rather than being left to you to remember.
The thing everyone guesses at
What's on your credit file, and for how long
These are the periods set in the credit reporting rules. Nothing a lender, a broker or a credit repair firm does changes them.
| What it is | How long it stays | What it means for a loan |
|---|---|---|
| Repayment history | 2 years | The month-by-month record of whether you paid on time. The shortest memory on the file, and the one you can improve fastest — which is exactly why the exit plan works. |
| A default | 5 years | Stays the full term whether or not you have since paid it. Paying it does not remove it — but it is marked as paid, and that matters a great deal to a lender. |
| A credit enquiry | 5 years | Every application you make, approved or not. Several in a short stretch reads as someone being turned down repeatedly, and it counts against you. The single strongest argument for not applying everywhere yourself. |
| A court judgment | 5 years | Taken seriously, and worth explaining in the application rather than leaving the assessor to guess. |
| A serious credit infringement | 7 years | The most damaging listing there is. Narrows the field considerably, though not always to nothing. |
| Bankruptcy | The later of 5 years from the date you became bankrupt, or 2 years from the date you stopped being bankrupt | Discharged bankrupts are lent to. The questions are how long ago, what has happened since, and how much deposit or equity you have. |
Source: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's published retention periods. You can get a free copy of your own credit report from each of the credit reporting bodies — ask me and I'll point you at the right forms.
Five ways this starts
The situations I see most often
| Situation | Who it suits | What I'd tell you |
|---|---|---|
| A default from a business that failed | Someone whose company went under years ago | Common, and often the most fundable of these. A single event with a clear story and years of clean conduct since reads very differently from a pattern. |
| Arrears through a separation or illness | Someone whose life came apart for a year | Repayment history clears in two years, which is the fastest-moving part of your file. Sometimes the right advice is simply to wait, and I will say so. |
| An ATO debt | A business owner who used tax money to cover a gap | More common than anyone admits. A payment arrangement already in place helps considerably. It is also covered on the business finance page. |
| Discharged bankruptcy | Someone rebuilding after the worst of it | Not the end of borrowing. How long ago it was, and what you have done since, matter more than the fact of it. |
| You need money quickly, against property | A short-term, asset-backed need with a clear exit | Private lending is fast and expensive, and it only makes sense where the way out is already identified and realistic. |
No theatre
What it costs you
It costs more. There is no version of this page where that is not the headline, and anybody telling you otherwise is selling something.
- A higher interest rateHow much higher depends on what is on the file, how old it is and how much equity you have. The range is wide, which is the argument for having the file put in front of more than one lender.
- A larger deposit, or more equitySpecialist lenders generally advance a smaller proportion of the value than a mainstream lender would.
- Risk and establishment feesMore common and larger here than on a standard loan.
- The cost of staying too longThe one nobody mentions. A specialist rate is reasonable for two years and expensive for six, and the difference between those two outcomes is whether anyone diarised the review.
Later, not now
What to have ready
Nothing for the first conversation. The second one is easier with these.
- A copy of your credit fileFree from each credit reporting body. This is the single most useful thing you can bring, and most people have never looked at theirs.
- The story, roughly datedWhat happened and when. Not a confession — assessors genuinely weigh circumstances, and a clear account of a bad year is worth more than a gap.
- Evidence it is behind youPayout letters for anything settled, a discharge certificate, or the ATO payment arrangement.
- IncomePayslips, or returns and notices of assessment if your income comes from an ABN.
- Your commitmentsOther loans, card limits, buy-now-pay-later accounts. Complete, including the ones you would rather not mention — they are on the file anyway, and a surprise late in an application is worse than a problem named early.
No dead ends
Where it gets hard, and what I do about it
Most of the damage I see on these files was done after the original problem, by someone trying to fix it.
Tell me where you're stuck-
You don't actually know what's on your file
Almost nobody does. People come in certain they have a default and find they have two, or convinced they are ruined and find one late payment from three years ago that no longer matters. You cannot plan around a document you have not read.
What I do about itWe get a copy before we do anything else. It is free, it takes a few days, and it turns the conversation from guesswork into a plan.
Occasionally it turns something up that should not be there at all, which is worth more than any loan I could write you.
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You have applied everywhere, and each one left a mark
The most common self-inflicted injury on this page. Declined, so you try another lender, then another. Every one of those is an enquiry recorded for five years, and the pattern itself becomes a reason to decline you — regardless of what caused the first no.
What I do about itStop applying and talk to someone who can see the whole panel first. I will tell you which lender is most likely to say yes before anything is lodged, and we go once.
If there have already been several recent enquiries, that is workable — it sometimes just means waiting a few months before the next approach, which is a far better plan than collecting another decline.
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The default is paid, and it is still there
People are frequently told that settling a default clears it. It does not. A default stays on the file for five years from when it was listed, whether or not it has since been paid.
What I do about itWhat paying it does change is how it reads: it is marked as paid, and to an assessor a paid default is a materially different thing from an outstanding one.
So it is worth doing, and it is worth doing before an application rather than during. What it is not is a way to make the listing disappear.
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Someone has promised you more than they can deliver
This corner of the market attracts it. Credit repair firms charging real money to remove listings that are accurate and will not be removed; brokers quoting a rate they have no lender willing to write. Both take fees from people least able to spare them.
What I do about itIf a listing is genuinely wrong, it can be disputed and corrected for free — through the credit reporting body, and through AFCA if that fails. You do not need to pay anyone for that, and I will show you how.
If a listing is accurate, nobody can remove it, and anyone saying otherwise is taking your money. I would rather tell you an uncomfortable number than a comfortable one.
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The higher rate becomes permanent by accident
The real cost of specialist lending is not the rate. It is being left on it for four years after you qualified for something better, because the loan settled, everyone moved on, and no one came back to look.
What I do about itThe review goes in the diary at settlement, set for when enough clean history has built up to change the picture. I come back to you rather than waiting to be called.
When that moment arrives it is an ordinary refinance, and what it involves is set out on the refinancing page.
Tell me what happened. I'll tell you where you stand.
One call, no credit enquiry, no obligation, and no lecture. Including when the honest answer is to wait.
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 directlyCan a default be removed?
If it is wrong, yes — and the process is free. You dispute it with the credit reporting body, and if that doesn't resolve it you can take it to AFCA. Nobody should be charging you for that.
If it is accurate, no. It stays for five years from when it was listed, and anyone offering to make it vanish for a fee is selling you something they cannot deliver.
How much higher is the rate?
It depends on what is on the file, how long ago it happened and how much equity you have, and the range across lenders is genuinely wide. That spread is the reason this is worth putting in front of a panel rather than one lender.
You will get the actual numbers in writing before anything is lodged, rather than a reassuring description of them.
How long until I can get a normal loan?
Repayment history is the fastest-moving part of your file at two years, so a clean run changes the picture well before a default drops off at five.
It depends what is there and how the loan performs, but the review should be diarised from the day it settles. A specialist loan nobody revisits is the expensive outcome.
Does being declined make things worse?
The decline itself isn't recorded, but the application is, and it stays for five years. Several in a short period is read as repeated rejection, which makes the next lender more cautious.
Which is why the advice is always the same: stop applying, find out what is actually on your file, then make one application to the lender most likely to approve it.
I was bankrupt. Is it hopeless?
No. Discharged bankrupts borrow, and the questions a lender asks are how long ago it was, what you have done since and how much deposit or equity you are bringing.
It narrows the field and it affects the rate. It is not the end of the conversation.
Will you tell me if it's not worth trying?
Yes, and that is most of the value here. Sometimes the right answer is to wait six months, clear one specific thing, and go then — with a much better result than forcing it now.
I would rather give you that answer and have you come back than lodge something I expect to fail and leave another enquiry on your file.
Also on the site
One broker for all your financing needs
Residential
Home loans
How borrowing capacity is assessed, and what changes when your income comes from an ABN rather than a payslip.
Residential
Refinancing
The move back to a mainstream rate, which is the whole point of a specialist loan.
Let's talk
Request a call back
Tell me roughly what's on the file and when it happened. No calendar to wrestle with — I'll call you.
Honest odds, and a way back.
Twenty-one years in lending, more than twenty-five lenders, and a plan that doesn't end at settlement.