Walk into the yard
with your own number.Car finance in Perth, compared across a named panel of lenders before you shop.

Both. For personal use we arrange secured and unsecured car loans for new and used cars, with most applications reviewed within 24 hours. For business use you finance through the business entity itself, usually as a chattel mortgage, which can help keep those costs on the right side of your books. The structure is the first thing to settle, because it decides which lenders and which contract apply.

Arrange your own first, then let the dealer try to beat it. The finance desk at a dealership is offering the products it is set up to write, and it is paid on them; a broker submits your file to whichever lender on a named panel suits it. A genuine manufacturer-subsidised rate on a new car can be worth taking, so bring it to your broker and compare the total cost rather than the weekly figure.

Sometimes, when a manufacturer is buying the rate down in a national campaign. Check three things: whether the offer sits on the full retail price rather than the price you would have negotiated, whether the term is shorter than you wanted, and whether there is a balloon at the end. A low rate on a higher price over a shorter term can cost more each week than an ordinary loan on the price you would have paid as a cash buyer.

Not always. Some lenders will finance 100% of the purchase price with no deposit. Whether you need one comes down to the lender's policy, your income, your credit history and the car's value against the loan. A deposit generally improves your approval chances and lowers your repayments, and on a thin credit file or an older car it can be the thing that widens the panel, but it is not always required.

A balloon, or residual, is a lump sum left owing at the end of the term, so the regular repayments only cover the rest. It lowers the weekly figure and raises the total interest, because the balloon is charged interest for the whole term. It can suit somebody who changes cars every few years and will trade in against it. It suits nobody who has not planned for the lump sum. The estimator on this page lets you move it from nothing to forty percent and shows both effects.

There isn't an official minimum. Every lender sets its own criteria, and we work with clients across a range of credit histories to find one that fits. What matters more than the score is how many enquiries are already on the file, which is why one application through a broker beats three direct ones. More here: bad credit car loans.

The interest rate is what you're charged on the amount borrowed. The comparison rate rolls in most standard fees as well, so it's a truer read on total cost. When you're comparing two loans, that's the figure to trust, and it is the figure a lender is obliged to show beside any advertised rate. Learn Comparison Rate at Moneysmart, and bring both numbers from any offer you have to your broker.

Fixed keeps your repayments the same for the whole term, which makes budgeting simpler, and it is what almost every secured car loan is written as. Variable can move with the market, up or down. The question worth asking about a fixed loan is not the rate but what it costs to leave early, because that is where fixed loans differ most from one lender to the next.

In most cases, yes. Rules vary lender to lender, but the majority don't charge a penalty for paying out early, and several charge something inside the first year or two. Ask before you sign rather than after; your broker will raise it anyway because it is one of the things that decides which lender the file goes to. Paying out early also means asking for a payout figure, which is the balance plus interest to the day, not the sum of the remaining repayments.

You ask the lender for a payout figure and the sale clears it. On a trade-in the dealer usually handles that directly and pays out the old loan from the new deal. If the car is worth less than the payout, the difference has to come from somewhere: your savings, or in some cases the new loan, which is called negative equity and is worth avoiding by not over-financing in the first place.

No. We run a soft check that doesn't touch your credit file while we work out which lender suits you. Going through a broker instead of applying around yourself can actually help protect your score, because the lender only sees one application when the file is ready rather than several half-finished ones.

Most hold for somewhere between thirty and ninety days depending on the lender, and it commits you to nothing. It is a conditional yes on an amount, subject to the car you eventually choose passing the lender's checks. If you take longer to find the car, it is usually refreshed on updated documents rather than started from scratch.

Plenty, provided you meet the lender's criteria. The first question is whether the car is mostly private or mostly business use, because that decides whether it is a consumer car loan on this page or a chattel mortgage. Several lenders will assess an ABN under two years old on bank statements rather than full tax returns, and there is a longer guide to car loan options for self-employed people if you want the detail.

Yes to both. The lender runs the same checks it would on a dealer car - a PPSR search for money owing, the price against value, the age against the term - and pays the seller directly once they clear. Interstate, the transport and the transfer onto Western Australian plates are yours to organise, and a lender will want to see the car licensed here. Make any deposit to a private seller conditional on finance and the PPSR result, in writing.

Usually, up to the lender's limit on how much more than the car's value it will lend. Whether they should is a separate question. On-road costs and the first year of comprehensive insurance are genuine costs of the purchase and it is reasonable to plan for them. Dealer add-ons financed over five years are the ones to look at twice, which is what the section on this page about the finance desk is for.

Different products for different situations. A novated lease runs through your employer and salary, so it only exists if your employer offers it, and it suits some salaried buyers of newer cars. A car loan is yours regardless of who you work for and the car is yours at the end without a residual to settle. The blog has a full comparison of a car loan against a lease, and your broker will tell you honestly if the lease is the better fit.

It comes down to your income, your existing commitments, your credit history and the car itself, rather than to a figure on a page. The quickest sanity check is our loan calculator, and there is a longer answer on how much you could borrow if you want the reasoning. Then let the pre-approval put a real number on it before you shop.

Yes, and it is worth looking at when your credit file has improved since the loan was written, when the loan was arranged at a dealership under time pressure, or when the repayments no longer fit. The new lender pays out the old one and the car becomes security for the new loan. Read our guide to car loan refinancing before you decide, because a payout fee on the old loan can eat the saving.

We act fast. We've had car loan approvals come through within an hour of a completed application, though that depends on the lender and how complete your paperwork is going in. Photo identification, recent payslips or income statements, bank statements from the last few months and proof of your current address is the usual list. The slow part is almost never the lender; it is waiting on a document.