Personal loans

[Van D]

Hey guys, had a search around and found a little info, but was after a bit more.

I'm thinking about taking out a small loan (i'm not sure on the minimum you can loan, but i'm looking at about 5-10k).

Basically, just after some names of people I should look into and go and talk to and what I should be looking to end up paying (say if I loaned 5,000, how much would I end up paying back roughly etc) and how long most loans last.

I've never done anything like this before, so one question I have.. Do they have fixed re-payments or can you pay back more than usual? i.e. Say i was paying back $200 a week, but one week I made some more money, could I pay $500 off it in one payment then go back to the $200 payments or not? Or could I even pay back the full $5000 (or what was left of it) in one go? I assume there'd be a fee though.

I'm only really thinking about doing it if the right car i'm after comes up at the right price and time, as I don't want to be off the road without a car, and the prices people want for the early birds seems to be going through the roof at the moment and I don't want to wait too long!

Cheers.

[EFIwindsor]

most bank website have a repayment calculator. so have a search.

as a general rule. variable loans can have extra repayments of any amt. some fixed loans charge fees for extra repayment/early payout.

some aloans also have fees for paying out within a time frame eg 1 year.

you need to do your research/read the PDS etc. unlike school home work on this topic will be important.

[Hunter]

I recently finished paying off my $10k loan (which actually worked out to be about $12k after interest) with the CBA. They don't offer the product I had anymore but basically it was a three year fixed term fixed rate loan. Repayments were $83.25 a month and I ended up paying it out 6 months early by paying extra off it every so often. No early payout fees or anything but I don't know if they do it anymore, interest rate was something like 11.75% iirc.

[XTGTinterceptor]

A lot of banks want to give you a credit card for that amount but if you persist they may bend abit. Sometimes they will loan you more and get you to only use what you need, Knowing full well that nature takes over an could allow you over spend. a Minimum amount for most personal loans I think is about 10k but if you stand by your amount as i said they could agree to you. as for pay out fees it all varies and is a question you ask before application. some give a fee for early pay out and it could be a percentage factor or dollar amount. some have no fee but the interest will be higher. work out exactly what you want and how you want to do it and then find someone to accommidate. an accountant that does your tax may also have some info. credit unions and things may be helpful banks love to loan heaps of money cause the more they give the more you give back. also think about if you have to open a seperate account what the service fee's are.

[asusdragon]

my GF and I have $16000 car loads one though Home building and one though westpac both we can make extra repayment or higher month replayment if we wish no early pay out fees i think we are both on 11.5% interest rate but dont quote me on that both over 5 years contracts (which is the max on personal/car loans? total cost to us if we make the min amount and over the 5 years is something like 21000 i think. have abit of a look round and all the bank rate but remeber the lowest interest rate might not be the best due to extra fee etcs etc, also you could have a look at brokers too i go mine though one because he does all my finances and cost me bout $300 in fees from him. would havbe bee better off going to a bank myself but hey all i needed to do though a my broker was give him my last few payslip and he sorted everything else out

[XPcoupe]

Use this site. I did it really helped work out what I could get from who.

http://au.pfinance.yahoo.com/loans/personal/

[FDG 220]

I got a loan through CBA, it's a variable personal loan and you can pay extra per week if you like and then if you need money back later oon down the track you can redraw the money you have paid extra into loan if need be

Pretty good way of doing it actually because it's like you've got money in bank but at same time saving you interest on loan

Payments on 10000 would be around the 200-250 a month mark depending on the interest rate at time with a term of 5 years

[Turboconvert]

i got a loan though the national. their personal loan can extend up to 7 years and you have the option of making that bit extra payment if you want. you can even chose to make the payments yourself. which is what i do and that allows me to make weekly payments and i just add an extra buck or two to the payments just to help the loan out that little bit more.

[XR06T]

might be worth trying a broker if you can get to one. they dont charge you for the service and you tell them exactly what you want and they get you the loan. all you do is sign the docs!

might be worth going to your bank first as they may give you a discount if you already do business with them. check their website as a starting point i rekon

[Van D]

Thanks for all the help guys.. I think I might bite the bullet and do it soon. Thinking about taking something around 7k out. Spending about 4k on the actual car, then the rest get the start of the project moving.. I'll also sell my current car once it's on the road to help out. Going to ring around (thanks for the link as well XPcoupe) and see if I can work something out. Don't want to be paying it off for more than a year or 2. I didn't think the repayments would be that small honestly, so I'll try find something where I can pay a bit extra off without any penalties.

Cheers guys.

[Van D]

Oh, and does anyone know any good smaller credit unions in Melbourne to go with? I've researched and found some unions that have low interest rates, no fees etc but are in NSW/QLD..

[Robos F6]

Originally Posted by Van D

Oh, and does anyone know any good smaller credit unions in Melbourne to go with? I've researched and found some unions that have low interest rates, no fees etc but are in NSW/QLD..

Have you got a quote yet?? Im in Melbourne, let me know if you got one, if not i'll try and get a deal for you.

[BFXR8Silhouette]

Stay away from brokers. They are the scum of the earth. Especially when you're only talking about a small personal loan. A little bit of research on the major banks websites will give you a comparison of interest rates. Could save yourself a few hundred dollars in brokers fees for a few hours reading internet sites.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by BFXR8Silhouette

Stay away from brokers. They are the scum of the earth. Especially when you're only talking about a small personal loan. A little bit of research on the major banks websites will give you a comparison of interest rates. Could save yourself a few hundred dollars in brokers fees for a few hours reading internet sites.

Nice generalisation there...

I happen to be a broker and im not scum, I've saved more ***** then i care to count..

Seems like we are always the bad ones cause we get paid commissions, funny how we still beat the banks 99% of the time on rates. I don't know anyone that works for nothing

Did a car for a bloke today, westpac quoted him 9%, i did it for 8.3% THROUGH westpac... :

[BFXR8Silhouette]

Well I'm a banker. In my experience brokers claim to be doing wonderful things (using up valuable time) then after 3 weeks that I could have been puting an application together the deal gets referred back to me to complete only now it's urgent! If the deal had been left with me in the first place it could have been done in the normal course of business, saved me and the customer a lot of stress and the customer a bit of money. Now I charge more because I'm working to a deadline and they dont have any other options. (Granted this only happens with homeloans/business deals where a strict settlement date needs to be met). But in smaller circumstances it's easy enough to do the work yourself and not need to involve a broker.