Personal Loans

What people use them for

Secured or unsecured

Unsecured means nothing is held as security. Rates are higher, but there's no asset at risk and nothing to value.

Secured means an asset backs the loan — usually a vehicle. Lower rate, but the asset is on the line if things go wrong.

Which is right depends on the amount, the term and how you feel about the trade. We'll show you both.

On debt consolidation, honestly

Consolidation genuinely helps when it lowers your overall interest cost and turns four unpredictable repayments into one you can plan around.

It hurts when you stretch a short debt over a much longer term — the monthly figure drops, and you end up paying more in total than you would have. And it hurts most when the cards get cleared and then used again, and you're carrying both.

We'll run the total-cost comparison, not just the monthly one, so you can see which of those you're looking at.

Application to money in the bank

The sequence, so you know what you're in for: apply online in a couple of minutes or ring and do it on the phone. We run a credit check that won't affect your credit score, compare your file across 60+ lenders, and come back with real options — conditional approval typically inside 24 to 48 hours.

Pick the one that suits, sign electronically, and funds usually land a few days later. The person who priced it is the person who settles it — there's no handoff to a processing team you've never spoken to.

One thing that speeds everything up: have your last three months of bank statements ready to share. It's the first thing every lender wants and the most common thing that stalls an otherwise quick approval.

If the loan is consolidating other debts, add one more item to the pile: a payout figure for each debt being cleared. Cards, old loans, the buy-now-pay-later balances — each has an exact number to close it, and having them upfront means the new loan is sized right the first time.

What decides the rate you're offered

Four things, roughly in order: your credit file, how you earn and how steadily, the amount and term, and whether the loan is secured or unsecured — that last one's covered above.

Now the bit the ads don't say. The "from" rate in any lender's advertising goes to their very cleanest files on their most favourable terms. Most applicants don't get the ad's number — they get their number, which they only discover after applying. That's the game, and it's why we don't play it.

Our approach runs the other way: we look at your actual file first, then tell you what you'd really pay across the panel before anything's lodged. No headline bait, no surprise at the end. We compare 60+ lenders and will beat your current offer.

One lever you control completely: the term. A shorter term means a higher repayment but less interest paid overall — often dramatically less. If the budget can carry the bigger repayment, the total-cost difference is worth seeing in dollars before you decide. We'll show you both versions side by side.

The fees, in plain English

Getting approval-ready

A few weeks of preparation can genuinely change the options you're offered. Start with the bank statements, because lenders read them line by line: three months of tidy conduct — no dishonours, no accounts scraping zero the day before payday — puts you in a different bracket. And know that everything is visible, from the buy-now-pay-later accounts to the Friday night punting. Not fatal, but seen.

Cancel the credit cards you don't use. A card's full limit counts against your borrowing power even if the balance is zero — a forgotten card with a ten-thousand-dollar limit is quietly shrinking what you can borrow.

The same logic applies to buy-now-pay-later. Active accounts show as ongoing commitments in your statements even when the balance is small, and four of them running at once reads as four repayments the lender has to count. Closing the ones you don't use tidies the picture in a fortnight.

Check your own credit report before applying — you can get it free from the credit bureaus — and fix any errors first, because wrong defaults and stale listings do come off when challenged. Then stop: don't lodge direct applications while you're shopping around, because each one can leave an enquiry on your file. That's what our comparison is for — one check that won't affect your credit score, across the whole panel.

Common mistakes with personal loans

Personal loan or credit card?

They're different tools. A card suits small, short borrowing you'll clear inside a month or two — used that way it can cost you nothing. A personal loan suits a defined amount with a defined end date: fixed repayments, a day it's finished, and no revolving limit sitting there inviting a second lap.

Where cards quietly cost people: balances that were "short-term" three years ago, and limits that cut borrowing power for the next application — lenders count the limit, not the balance, when they assess you.

The interest-free period is the card's headline trick, and it's real — but it only exists while the balance clears in full each cycle. Miss that once and the clock runs on the whole balance. A loan has no trick to lose: the repayment is the repayment, every month, until it's done.

If you're already carrying card balances that won't die, that's the debt consolidation conversation above — rolling them into a loan with an actual finish line. We'll run the total-cost numbers so you can see whether it stacks up for your situation.

What customers say

Questions we get asked