Car Loans Frequently Asked Questions

If you own a car, it may be something that can help you bring down the cost of your next vehicle purchase through its sale. However, before you can do that you’ll want to find out how much your car is worth.

Your car’s worth can depend upon various aspects, including:

• Age
• Condition
• Model and make

A great starting place for aspects of this includes websites that offer online valuations, allowing you to enter your car’s make, model, year, badge and description, with the listed results displaying a price guide based on both selling your car privately and through a dealership.

Both have pros and cons, as cars can be very profitable, something that will no doubt impact any chance you have to make the most of your car’s value upon sale. Dealerships will try to profit on your trade-in by buying it for less than they can sell it for, so you shouldn’t expect the same price selling a car to a dealer that you would necessarily get selling a car privately.

Anyone who knows your circumstances and trusts you to meet your repayments is someone who could potentially go guarantor for you on a car loan, providing that they have an excellent credit history and/or are a home owner.

Parents are the most likely to be accepted by lenders as guarantors, but immediate family such as grandparents, adult children, siblings and de facto partners are also accepted. If you want a friend of colleague to go guarantor for you it is possible but may require a specialist lender and may incur a premium fee.

While a guarantor for a car loan is often a parent or relative, to be accepted as a guarantor, that third party must be someone with very good or excellent credit. They may have to put an asset of theirs against the loan as collateral, such as their car or home equity.

It’s important for both parties to really consider the risks involved before signing the dotted line of a guarantor car loan, including:

• What is your financial situation like?
• How secure is your current income?
• Are you likely to default on the loan?
• How much will the guarantor be required to repay if you default?
• How will this repayment impact the guarantor’s ability to service their existing financial commitments?
• Will your relationship be affected if the situation sours?

Ensuring you can answer these questions will help you and your potential guarantor decide whether a guarantor car loan is right for you.

Student car loans are not a necessarily a product in and of themselves, but what you may be looking for is a guarantor car loan.

A guarantor car loan has a third-party act as a form of guarantee for your loan application, telling the bank or lender that if you default on your loan, someone will pay the loan repayments.

Going guarantor on a car loan is no new thing, and before internet-based credit scores, guarantor car loan applicants would apply for loans with a guarantor or property owner who could vouch for the person borrowing the loan.

To get a guarantor car loan, you’ll need someone willing to act as a guarantor for your car loan.

Single mothers can sometimes find that due to their circumstances the bigger banks can be less inclined to lend to them, but there are smaller companies and specialist lenders who can be willing to provide loans to people in a range of circumstances.

Single mothers could benefit from getting in touch with a car finance broker, as a broker is likely to have knowledge and access to options that are suited to their needs.

Advantages to using a broker:

• Finance brokers often don’t charge for their services as they work on a commission basis from lenders.
• Brokers will have industry knowledge and contacts within lending companies and is therefore more likely to be able to find the best deal for your circumstances.
• Brokers are qualified professionals who are licensed under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act so have an obligation to follow responsible lending practices and to work in your best interests.

Find car finance through a broker.

Even if you’ve been denied a car loan before, you might still be able to get car finance. The key is to make the right application to the right lender.

The ‘right’ application is one that makes you look like an acceptable risk, which might include things like improving your credit score, increasing your savings rate and accumulating a bigger deposit.

The ‘right’ lender is one that deals with borrowers like you. For example, while some car loan lenders only deal with good credit borrowers, there are others that specialise in bad credit or poor credit borrowers.

A guarantor car loan is a type of loan that features a guarantor on the agreement. The guarantor is a third-party individual, often a friend or relative, who guarantees the loan will be repaid if the borrower defaults on the car loan.

Guarantor car loans are often geared at people who might otherwise struggle being accepted for a secured car loan when purchasing a vehicle. Some of the reasons might include a lack of credit history such as with a student or young person, if there’s bad credit, or age as a factor such as with pensioners.

You don’t need good credit to get a car loan, although the worse your credit history, the harder and more expensive it’s likely to be.

Some lenders will do business only with borrowers who have good credit. However, there are other lenders that are willing to offer car loans to borrowers who don’t have good credit. The catch, though, is that they may charge higher interest rates and fees, and also require more paperwork.

If you don’t have good credit and want a car loan immediately, you can search for lenders that work with bad credit borrowers. If you are able to wait, you can work to improve your credit score and then apply for a car loan once you have good credit.

You can apply for a CommBank car loan pre-approval online, over the phone or by visiting a branch. The steps to apply for CommBank car loan pre-approval are similar to any other car loan application and include the following:

1. Consider checking your credit rating before applying for the loan. The lender uses your credit score and credit history to help determine your creditworthiness, and decide if you should be granted approval. Your credit score will likely also be used to determine what interest rate they are prepared to offer you.
2. Gather all the required documents and your personal information. This should include proof of income, identity and residency.
3. Review all the terms and conditions, interest rate and additional fees related to the loan to ensure it meets your requirements.
4. Submit your application to CommBank for approval.

Commonwealth Bank will then review and confirm all your details and, if successful, offer you pre-approval. Once you receive the pre-approval for the car loan from Commonwealth Bank, you can start shopping around for a new car with the knowledge you have finances secured.

Like all things, there are positives and negatives to guarantor car loans, though one may outweigh the other depending on your needs.

Guarantor car loan pros may include that you’re more likely to be approved for a long if you have no credit or a history with bad credit, that you’re more likely to secure a car loan with a lower interest rate, and that because your guarantor car loan is based on a relationship, you will be more inclined to meet your repayment schedule.

However, there are negatives, as well. Guarantor car loan cons may include leaving a detrimental mark on a personal relationship with added strain if you don’t meet your repayments, and you may take out a loan that you can’t actually afford.

Weighing these pros and cons will give you a greater understanding of whether a guarantor loan is ideal for your circumstances.