Broker vs bank: who should arrange your car finance?
By Scott McCristal · 18 August 2026 · 5 minute read
Your bank can only offer you its own products, assessed under its own credit policy. A broker takes the same application to a panel of lenders — ours is more than 60 — and comes back with the options that fit. That's the whole difference. Everything else follows from it.
What the bank does well
Fair's fair: if you're a payslip employee with a clean file, a long history at one bank, and the car is new, your own bank can be quick and competitive. You're exactly who their credit policy was written for. If that's you, get their offer — then ring us and we'll tell you straight whether the panel can beat it. Sometimes it can't, and we'll say so.
Where the one-policy problem bites
A bank's credit policy is a box. Fit it, and life is easy. Don't fit it — self-employed, ABN under two years, a default from years back, casual income, an older vehicle, a private sale — and the answer is no, no matter how affordable the repayment actually is.
A broker's job is knowing which of sixty-plus lenders writes your exact situation as a matter of course. The deal a bank declines on Tuesday gets approved elsewhere on Wednesday, not because anyone bent a rule, but because a different lender prices for exactly that risk.
Who pays the broker?
The lender pays us a commission when a loan settles. We disclose it before you sign — it's in the paperwork, not hidden in fine print. Ask us on the phone and we'll tell you that too. Any broker who gets cagey about this question is telling you something.
The questions to ask any broker
- How many lenders are actually on your panel?
- Are you a licensed credit representative, and under whose licence? (Ours: Credit Representative 568862, under Australian Credit Licence 539918 held by Rivercity Finance Pty Ltd. It's in our footer.)
- Will you show me the total cost over the term, not just the repayment?
- Who handles my file — you, or a call centre?
Got a question this didn’t answer? Ring us — you’ll get Scott, not a call centre.