ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Car Loans.Checked Before You Sign.
A car loan is secured against the car, which is why it prices below an unsecured loan and why the lender can take the car if you fall behind. We compare 100+ lenders on the comparison rate rather than the headline rate, and we check the car itself before you hand over any money.
15 minutes. No paperwork, no credit check, no obligation, and we do not approach a lender until you have approved it. Worth doing before you sit down at a dealership finance desk, not after. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Car Loan Brokers
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is a Car Loan and How Does a Car Loan Work?
A car loan is money borrowed to buy a vehicle and repaid over a fixed term, commonly one to seven years. Most car loans are secured against the car itself. That security is why the rate sits below an unsecured loan, and it is also the risk: if you do not meet the repayments, the lender can take the vehicle and sell it to cover the loan.
The number that decides which loan is cheaper is the comparison rate, not the advertised one. ASIC Moneysmart describes it as a single figure for the cost of the loan that includes the interest rate and the fees, which is exactly why two loans quoting the same rate can cost different amounts. Moneysmart also notes that a dealership arrangement can involve a broker, a dealership and a lender each charging their own fees on top of the interest.
This page covers cars bought for personal, domestic or household use. That is regulated consumer credit, so Best Interests Duty applies to us and we are required to act in your interests. If the car is being bought through a business, the rules and the tax treatment are different and it belongs on our commercial vehicle finance page instead.
Common Situations
Why People Come to Us for a Car Loan
Six situations cover most car finance enquiries. The right answer is different in each one, and in two of them it is not a car loan at all.
Buying new from a dealership
The finance desk will have an offer ready. Getting a comparison from outside the dealership first costs you nothing and turns their offer into one option rather than the only one. It also means the structure is decided before the keys are in sight.
Buying used from a private seller
The cheaper car and the harder purchase. Money owing on the vehicle can follow it to you, so the register search matters as much as the finance, and fewer lenders write private sales than write dealer sales.
Refinancing a car loan you signed in a hurry
Common after a dealership purchase, particularly where add-ons were bundled into the loan. Whether it is worth moving depends on what is left owing against what the car is now worth, and we will tell you when it is not.
A second car for the household
The existing loan, the card limits and any buy now pay later accounts all count against you here, not just your income. Worth checking your position before you start looking rather than after you have made an offer.
You want the car before you have sold the old one
Financing the full price and paying a lump off once the old car sells can work, but only if the loan allows extra repayments without a penalty. That is a contract question we check before you commit, not after.
Buying the car through your business
Different rules and different tax treatment. A chattel mortgage or lease may suit better than a consumer loan, and that sits on our commercial vehicle finance page. Your accountant confirms the treatment, not us.
Social Proof
120+ Five-Star Google Reviews
Car buyers, families and business owners alongside home buyers. Pulled live from Google, not curated by us.
Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Car and personal finance sits with Chantelle, our Asset and Personal Finance Specialist, who writes it every day rather than whoever happens to be free that afternoon. On a car loan the useful work happens before anything is lodged: which lenders will look at that vehicle, what is registered against it, and what the loan costs on the comparison rate rather than the headline one. Most of what goes wrong with car finance is settled before a loan contract exists.
Part of Our 100+ Lender Panel
The names most people recognise are residential lenders. Much of what we arrange runs through funders that do not advertise to the public. Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it, and which lender suits you is decided by your file rather than by who is on this list.
About to Sit Down at the Finance Desk?
Fifteen minutes gives you a number to compare it against. No credit check.What Actually Decides It
Most of What Goes Wrong With Car Finance Happens Before the Loan Does
The expensive mistakes in car finance are rarely the interest rate. They are a used car with somebody else’s debt still attached to it, a rate the dealer was never allowed to set, insurance sold in the same conversation as the car, and a balloon that made the repayment look smaller than the loan actually is. Six things decide it, and five of them are settled before a loan contract exists.
The debt can follow the car rather than the seller
A Personal Property Securities Register search tells you whether a security interest is registered against a vehicle, which usually means money is still owing on it. PPSR puts it bluntly: the car could be repossessed from you even though you have paid for it. Buy from a licensed motor vehicle dealer and you are generally protected. Buy privately and you are not.
The date of the search is the protection
This is the part almost nobody is told. PPSR states that if you do your search the day you buy the car or the day before, and the certificate shows no security interest registered, it can help protect you if someone claims an interest later. A search you ran a fortnight ago is information. A search run the day before is evidence.
Written off and stolen come from the same search
The result also draws on NEVDIS, the national vehicle register, and reports whether the car is recorded as stolen and whether it is recorded as a statutory or repairable write-off. It needs the vehicle identification or chassis number, because the register cannot be searched by number plate. A write-off record narrows which lenders will touch it.
The dealer has not been allowed to set your rate since 2018
Flex commissions let a dealer choose the rate within a range and earn a bigger commission the higher they went. ASIC banned them from 1 November 2018, and the lender rather than the car dealer now determines the interest rate on a particular loan. Dealers can still be paid a commission, so the finance is still worth comparing. It is just no longer the practice people warn you about.
They cannot sell you the insurance in the same breath
Since 5 October 2021 a deferred sales model has required a four-day pause between the sale of the car and the sale of add-on insurance such as gap, tyre and rim or consumer credit insurance. Moneysmart says that if a salesperson does not wait, you have the right to cancel and get a full refund, and that dealers often take a 20 per cent commission on the premium.
A balloon moves the repayment rather than the cost
A balloon is a lump sum owed at the end of the term. Moneysmart is direct about the effect: your monthly payments will be smaller, but you repay the lump sum with interest, so the total cost of the loan is generally higher. The same is true of stretching the term. Both make the brochure figure look better and the loan cost more.
Checked 1 September 2026. Security interests, the search certificate and the NEVDIS write-off and stolen data come from the Personal Property Securities Register, administered by the Australian Financial Security Authority. The flex commission ban is ASIC Credit (Flexible Credit Cost Arrangements) Instrument 2017/780, in force from 1 November 2018 and explained in ASIC media release 18-329MR. The four-day deferral, the refund right and the commission figure are from ASIC Moneysmart and ASIC media release 21-189MR. Certain classes of add-on motor vehicle insurance, including comprehensive and compulsory third party cover, are currently exempt from the deferral and that exemption is subject to change. Balloon payments, comparison rates, secured and unsecured car loans and loan terms are from Moneysmart. Best Interests Duty is set out in ASIC Regulatory Guide 273. A register search is a check, not legal advice, and it does not replace a mechanical inspection. We are not tax agents. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
None of the six is a question about your income, and all six change what the car ends up costing you. Run them past us before you buy.
The Honest Comparison
Broker or Just Take the Finance the Dealer Offers?
The real question on this page, and the answer is less one-sided than it was ten years ago. Both, properly.
Arrange the finance where you buy the car
- One conversation, one afternoon, and you can often drive away the same week
- Since the flex commission ban the lender sets the rate, not the person selling you the car
- Manufacturer-backed offers on new stock can genuinely be sharp, and we will say so
- One panel, so you see one answer and cannot tell whether it is a good one
- Term, balloon and extras get decided at a desk with the car twenty metres away
Compare first then buy the car
- 100+ lenders including funders that never advertise, compared on comparison rate
- One lender chosen before anything is lodged, rather than your file shopped around
- Best Interests Duty applies to us on a personal-use car loan. It does not apply to a car salesperson
- The structure, the term and the register search get looked at before you commit
- It takes a conversation you have to book, which is slower than saying yes at the desk
The strongest argument against dealer finance is out of date, and we would rather say so than use it. Flex commissions are banned. The dealer cannot lift your rate to earn more, and a manufacturer-backed offer on new stock can genuinely be cheaper than anything else on the table. If that is your situation, take it. What we can tell you is whether it is, which takes fifteen minutes and costs you nothing.
There are three cases where the answer is not a car loan at all, and we lose all three. If the car is cheap and you could clear it inside a year or two, the interest on any car loan is money spent on a depreciating asset for no reason. If a modest repayment is already a stretch, the honest fix is a cheaper car, not a longer term. And if the plan is to roll a warranty, paint protection and insurance into the loan, you will pay interest on all of it for the full term, which is the single most common way a reasonable car purchase turns into an unreasonable debt.
Buy the insurance later, separately, from someone who is not selling you a car. The four-day pause exists precisely so you can.
If debt is already the pressure rather than the car, the free National Debt Helpline is on 1800 007 007. That call costs you nothing and earns us nothing.
Find Out If the Dealer Offer Is Actually Better
Whether a manufacturer-backed offer beats what we can find, and what rolling warranty and paint protection into the loan really costs. Fifteen minutes. No credit check.The Difference
We Look at the Car as Well as the Borrower
A lender assesses you. A dealership sells you the car. Nobody in that chain is paid to tell you what is registered against the vehicle or what the loan will cost over seven years.
We Check the Register as Well as Your Payslips
On a private sale we tell you to run the search, when to run it, and what the result means. Money owing on a used car can be repossessed from the person who bought it, and that is a five-figure problem discovered after the fact.
Legally On Your Side
A car bought for personal, domestic or household use is regulated consumer credit, so Best Interests Duty applies. We must act in your interests and give them priority where they conflict with ours. Those obligations have applied since 1 January 2021, and they have never applied to a car salesperson.
No Fee. Not Even Clawback.
We do not charge you for the comparison, the structuring or the application, on any loan type. If you pay the loan out early we wear the clawback ourselves rather than invoicing you for it. Lenders pay a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing before any work begins.
One Application Rather Than Five
Every credit application is recorded on your file, and too many in a short period can count against you. We work out which lender writes your car, your age bracket and your position before anything is lodged. More on that on our pre-approval page.
The Process
How a Car Loan Comes Together
Four steps, and the first one usually happens before you have chosen the car.
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15 minutes
What you are buying and where from
New or used, dealer or private, the rough price and how long you want to keep it. No documents and no credit check. You will finish the call knowing which lenders will look at that car and what the structure should be.
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You gather
Documents
Lighter than a mortgage by a long way. We confirm exactly which of these your chosen lender wants before you go looking for any of them.
- Driver licence or photo identification
- Two recent payslips
- Recent bank statements
- Details of existing debts and card limits
- The vehicle identification or chassis number
- Invoice, contract of sale or the seller’s details
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We handle
Lender selection and the register search before submission
We work out which lender writes your vehicle and your position before anything is lodged, so your credit file is not marked repeatedly. On a used car the register search happens here, and we time it against your settlement date rather than running it whenever the file opens.
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We manage
From approval to settlement to keys
We handle the documents and settle directly with the dealer or the private seller so the money moves safely and any existing security over the car is dealt with at the same time. If the first lender declines, we already know where it goes next.
Track Record
A Dedicated Asset Finance Specialist
Car and personal finance sits with Chantelle, who writes it every day, rather than with whoever happens to be free that afternoon.
Related Options
Other Ways to Finance a Vehicle
A consumer car loan is one route. These are the others, and one of them is usually better if the car is for work.
Commercial vehicle finance
Where the car, ute or van is bought through a business, which changes both the structure and the tax treatment.
Electric vehicle loans
EV and hybrid purchases, where a number of lenders price differently to a comparable petrol car.
Motorcycle finance
Bikes sit outside standard car lending. Fewer lenders write them and the age rules differ sharply.
Personal loans
For an older or cheaper car that lenders will not take as security, or where you would rather not secure the debt at all.
Equipment finance
Where the vehicle is one line in a larger equipment purchase, financed against the assets themselves.
Every asset we finance
Back up to the full range if the thing you are buying is not a car. Caravans and boats included.
Get the Number Before You Get the Car.
Fifteen minutes, and you will know what the finance should cost.Questions Answered
Car Loan FAQs
The questions car buyers ask us most often before getting in touch.
How does a car loan work?
A car loan is money borrowed to buy a vehicle and repaid over a fixed term, commonly one to seven years. Most car loans are secured against the car itself. That security is why the rate is lower than an unsecured loan, and it is also the risk: ASIC Moneysmart says that if you do not meet your loan repayments the lender can take your vehicle and sell it to cover the loan.
What is the difference between a secured and an unsecured car loan?
A secured car loan uses the car as security, so the lender can repossess and sell it if you fall behind. An unsecured loan is not tied to the car, so the lender cannot seek to repossess and sell it, but Moneysmart notes the interest rate on an unsecured loan is often higher. Which one suits you depends on the age and value of the car as much as on your position.
Should I check the car on the PPSR before I buy it?
Yes, and the timing matters. A Personal Property Securities Register search tells you whether a security interest is registered against the vehicle, which usually means money is still owing on it. PPSR warns that a car with money owing could be repossessed from you even though you have paid for it. Buyers from a licensed motor vehicle dealer are generally protected from repossession.
Can a PPSR search protect me if I buy privately?
It can. PPSR states that if you do your search the day you buy a car or the day before, and the search certificate shows the car had no security interest registered, it can help protect you if someone claims an interest in the car later. You need the vehicle identification number or chassis number, because the register cannot be searched by number plate.
Can a car dealer set the interest rate on my loan?
No. Flex commission arrangements, where the dealer set the rate within a range and earned a larger commission the higher the rate, were banned by ASIC from 1 November 2018. The lender, not the car dealer, now has responsibility for determining the interest rate that applies to a particular loan. Dealers can still be paid a commission, so the finance is still worth comparing.
Can I be sold insurance at the same time as the car?
Generally not. Under the deferred sales model that began on 5 October 2021 there is a mandatory four-day pause between the sale of the car and the sale of add-on insurance. Moneysmart says that if a salesperson does not wait, you have the right to cancel the insurance and get a full refund. Some classes of motor vehicle insurance are currently exempt from the pause.
Does a balloon payment make a car loan cheaper?
No, it usually makes it dearer overall. A balloon is a final lump sum at the end of the loan. Moneysmart explains that your monthly payments will be smaller, but you have to repay the lump sum with interest, so the total cost of the loan is generally higher. It can still be the right structure, but it should be a decision rather than a surprise.
Does Best Interests Duty apply to a car loan?
Yes, where the car is being bought for personal, domestic or household use. That is regulated consumer credit under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, so we are legally required to act in your best interests and, where interests conflict, to give priority to yours. Those obligations have applied since 1 January 2021. Finance for a business vehicle sits outside that framework.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Clients Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Car finance runs almost entirely by phone and email, and we settle with dealers and private sellers in every state.
Parramatta
Suite 23, Level 1, 181 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Finance broker Parramatta →Ready When You Are
Tell Us What You’re Buying.
Fifteen minutes with Chantelle. Tell us the car, where you are buying it and roughly what you want to spend, and we will tell you which lenders will look at it, what the comparison rate should be, and what to check on the vehicle before you pay for it.
No credit check, no paperwork, no obligation. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
Where a vehicle is financed wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household use, that is regulated consumer credit and Intellect Finance is legally required to act in your best interests under the Best Interests Duty in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. A secured car loan puts the vehicle at risk if you cannot repay it. Finance for a vehicle bought for business purposes sits outside that framework. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, legal advice or tax advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance or an offer of credit. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
The car is the security, and that is the risk. On a secured car loan the lender can take the vehicle and sell it to cover the loan if you do not meet the repayments. Selling the car may not clear the debt, in which case the shortfall remains yours. If repayments are already tight, a longer term or a balloon lowers the monthly figure without lowering what you owe. If debt is the pressure, the free National Debt Helpline is available on 1800 007 007.
Best Interests Duty. Where credit is provided wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household purposes, it is regulated consumer credit under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. When providing credit assistance on these products, Intellect Finance is required to act in your best interests and, where there is a conflict of interest, to give priority to your interests. These obligations have applied to credit assistance providers since 1 January 2021.
Business use is a different framework. Where a vehicle is financed wholly or predominantly for business purposes, that is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid in writing before you proceed either way. If you are unsure which applies to your purchase, ask the lender and get the answer in writing before you sign.
A register search is a check, not a warranty. A Personal Property Securities Register search reports what is recorded against a vehicle at the moment you search it. It is not a mechanical inspection, a valuation, or a guarantee of title, and the protections described on this page are as stated by the register operator rather than advice on your particular purchase. Whether a search protects you in a given transaction is a legal question for your solicitor.
Insurance is not our product. Comprehensive, compulsory third party and add-on insurance products are financial products arranged by licensed insurers and their representatives, not by us. We do not advise on them, arrange them or receive commission on them. The deferred sales rules described on this page are set by legislation, are subject to exemptions for certain classes of cover, and can change.
Tax positions are not ours to give. Any deduction, GST treatment or depreciation position on a vehicle depends on how it is used and on your own circumstances. Those are matters for a registered tax agent and the Australian Taxation Office. We are not registered tax agents and we do not provide tax advice.
Nothing here is a guarantee. Loan approval, borrowing capacity, pricing, terms, deposit requirements, which vehicles a lender will finance, whether a lender will write a private sale or an older vehicle, whether early repayment attracts a penalty and how long anything takes are determined by individual lenders, not by us. Lender policy on all of those varies and is not published here. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any range or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a loan is paid out early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing in our Credit Guide before any credit assistance is provided.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to legislation, regulatory guidance or register operator statements, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member