Personal Loan Lenders: Broker Comparison 2026

Personal loan lenders belong on your shortlist when their purpose rules, income assessment and repayments fit the same client facts. Compare ANZ for unsecured bank lending, Liberty for secured or unsecured options and NOW Finance for broker-accessible personal loans. Finance One is a separate adverse-credit candidate when its smaller loan range fits.

The best personal loan lender for one client can fail another client’s security requirements or budget. Start with eligibility, then compare the actual offer’s cost.

Shortlist Lenders for the Client’s Purpose

Define the amount the client needs, the personal purpose and the repayment they can sustain before selecting lenders. Record their employment, residency, credit history and existing commitments. Ask whether they will pledge an asset and whether they expect to repay early.

A bank is an institution type. Online describes an application channel, while non-bank and private describe providers outside traditional banking. None of these labels proves that a lender accepts adverse credit or lends without income evidence.

A secured personal loan gives the lender rights over the nominated asset if repayments fail. An unsecured loan avoids that pledged asset, but the borrower still owes the debt. Private car finance can mean a loan for a privately purchased vehicle or lending from a private provider, so establish which the client means.

Personal loan borrowing power depends on accepted income less living expenses and existing debt commitments. Credit-card limits, dependants and the proposed term can change the result. Different income treatment, expense floors and credit policies produce different lender figures from the same facts.

Serviceability means the client’s ability to meet repayments. A product maximum is a limit on the product, not the amount this client can borrow. Keep the lender’s affordability result separate from your client’s own comfortable repayment budget.

For car repairs, compare the repair quote with the minimum loan amount before seeking a larger loan. A small repair bill does not justify borrowing thousands extra merely to enter a product range. Moneysmart’s personal-loan guide also identifies no-interest lending for eligible borrowers with smaller needs.

Compare the Same Borrower Scenario

Compare each provider against one scenario, then change only the fact that needs testing. In this fictional example, an Australian permanent resident aged 35 needs $20,000 for home improvements over five years. They have regular documented employment income, a clear credit history and a car they own outright.

The borrower prefers an unsecured loan but will consider vehicle security if the saving justifies the risk. Affordability remains subject to each lender’s assessment. These are candidates for comparison, not approvals.

Provider and source date	Product, range and term	Purpose, assessment and access	Reason to include or exclude
ANZ, as at October 2026	Unsecured fixed or variable personal loan. $5,000 to $75,000 over one to seven years	Personal expenses and debt consolidation. Credit assessment applies. Direct online or branch applications	Include for unsecured bank lending. Compare fixed-rate early repayment costs against variable-rate flexibility
Liberty, as at October 2026	Secured or unsecured fixed-rate personal loan. $5,000 to $80,000 over three, five or seven years	Non-business purposes. Credit score and financial history affect pricing. Online application or Liberty Adviser route	Include both forms. Secured product requires an eligible vehicle. Personalised rate and establishment fee decide cost
NOW Finance, product guide effective 15 August 2025, checked October 2026	Unsecured $5,000 to $50,000. Secured $15,000 to $100,000. Five years fits this example	Personal purposes, including improvements and consolidation. Broker application route and online consumer route	Include unsecured. Compare secured only after the asset passes its security rules. Broker origination fees require a separate cost entry
Finance One, as at October 2026	Personal loan range $5,000 to $25,000. Term, security and final fees depend on the offered contract	Considers adverse credit, with income proof and assessment. Online and accredited-broker routes	Reserve for a changed credit-history scenario. Its published range contains $20,000, but a complete offer is needed before cost comparison

ANZ is Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited. Liberty’s personal-loan credit provider is Secure Funding Pty Ltd, trading as Liberty Financial.

NOW Finance’s cited guide names NOW Finance Group Pty Ltd as agent for NF Finco 2 Pty Ltd. Finance One’s consumer lender is Fin One Pty Ltd.

Compare the ANZ product, Liberty secured product and NOW Finance product guide against those facts. A bank’s mortgage-broker channel does not automatically provide access to its personal loans. Record the actual application route you can use.

Calculate Cost and Repayment Fit

Compare total repayments for the same net amount delivered to the client and the same term. A personalised interest rate can differ from the advertised minimum because the lender prices the applicant’s credit profile. Financed fees also increase the amount attracting interest.

Record the offered annual rate and every lender fee. Separate establishment costs from ongoing charges.

Add any broker fee and early payout cost that applies to the client’s intended repayment pattern. Include any balloon as a final repayment, rather than treating a low instalment as the full cost.

ANZ’s fees, as at October 2026, include a $150 approval fee and $10 monthly administration charge. Variable loans permit early repayment without an early repayment charge. Fixed loans can incur early repayment costs.

Liberty’s terms, as at October 2026, list unsecured establishment fees from $0 to $950 and secured establishment fees from $310 to $1,010. Both list zero ongoing and early repayment fees, with other charges possible. Its unsecured product terms base the comparison rate on $30,000 over five years.

NOW Finance’s guide effective 15 August 2025 lists zero lender establishment, administration and early termination fees for its unsecured personal loan. It also permits a broker origination fee. Include that fee in the quote instead of treating the lender’s no-fee description as the client’s entire transaction cost.

A comparison rate includes interest and most fees under stated assumptions. Compare matching amounts and terms, then calculate the client’s actual offer. Moneysmart’s calculator helps show the effect of changing the term or rate.

This fictional calculation uses $20,000, monthly repayments and no fees. Interest accrues monthly at the annual rate divided by 12. Figures are rounded and are not lender quotes.

Annual interest rate	Term	Approximate monthly repayment	Approximate total repayments
10%	Five years	$424.94	$25,496.45
13%	Five years	$455.06	$27,303.69
10%	Three years	$645.34	$23,232.37

A variable-rate increase from 10% to 13% adds about $30.12 a month in this five-year example. Test whether the household can absorb that increase without missing other commitments. For a fixed rate personal loan, assess the contracted instalment and the cost of the client’s intended early repayment.

Check Private and Adverse-Credit Claims

Assess a private lender by its legal identity, consumer-credit authority and written offer. A promise of no credit check does not establish affordability or remove consumer-credit obligations. Avoid treating a property-backed business loan as a personal-loan substitute merely because the borrower owns a business.

Search the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) credit registers using the contract’s legal entity. Match the licence or representative authority to the business supplying credit or assistance. ASIC explains that a credit licence alone does not guarantee the quality of a provider’s services.

Record what income verification occurs, which credit enquiries the application creates and how the provider assesses repayment capacity. ASIC’s responsible-lending guidance explains the consumer-credit assessment obligations. Reject a recommendation based solely on a private-provider label or guaranteed-approval advertising.

Finance One, as at October 2026, considers applicants with defaults or discharged bankruptcy. Its personal-loan application guidance requires three months of bank statements and proof of income. Consideration is conditional on assessment, and some contracts have an early payout fee.

For adverse credit, collect the credit report, default status and explanation of the event. Add current repayment evidence and the client’s present budget. Security does not erase adverse credit or prove that a secured personal loan is affordable.

Self-Employed and Low Doc Applications

NOW Finance has a documented reduced-document income route for self-employed clients, as at October 2026. Its broker self-employed guidance requires an Australian Business Number (ABN) active for at least 24 months. It accepts a personal notice of assessment plus either illion business bank statements or the latest Business Activity Statement (BAS).

The notice of assessment must be no older than 21 months. NOW Finance bases servicing on its declared income. This route helps clients without payslips, but it still requires tax-assessed income and supporting evidence.

Treat low doc personal loans as reduced documentation, not automatic approval or a no doc personal loan. Compare the evidence the client has with the named lender’s requirements. Do not transfer a lender’s low-doc home-loan rules to its unsecured personal loan.

Use the private no-credit-check assessment guide for the claim’s specific risks. Keep business-purpose private credit separate from this personal-purpose shortlist. The Liberty personal-loan guide covers its products in more detail.

Refinance an Existing Personal Loan

A client can refinance a personal loan when a new lender approves enough credit to repay the old debt and complete the settlement. ANZ, Liberty and NOW Finance list debt consolidation among their personal-loan purposes, as at October 2026. Approval still depends on current affordability and credit assessment.

Compare the existing loan’s remaining repayments with the new loan’s total repayments and all switching charges. Interest already paid on the old loan cannot be saved, so use only its remaining cost.

For example, $20,000 remaining at 12% over three years costs about $664.29 monthly and $23,914.30 in remaining repayments, ignoring fees. Refinancing $20,000 at 10% over five years lowers the monthly payment to about $424.94. Total repayments rise to about $25,496.45 before switching fees.

The lower repayment costs about $1,582.15 more because the debt lasts longer. Refinancing at 10% over the same three years produces about $23,232.37 in repayments. That leaves about $681.93 for switching costs before the saving disappears.

Refinancing to ANZ

ANZ’s application guidance, as at October 2026, requires the last three months of statements for other lenders’ debts being refinanced. Internet banking statements must show the account number, account name, bank identity and transaction history.

1. Obtain the current lender’s payout figure and expiry date, including interest and exit charges.
2. Compare ANZ’s personalised offer and fees with the remaining debt cost.
3. Apply through ANZ’s online or branch route, supplying identity, income and expense evidence with the debt statements.
4. Meet the approved offer’s settlement instructions and arrange payment to the existing lender.
5. Obtain confirmation that the old loan is repaid, then reconcile any final interest or fees before ending its repayment arrangement.

Use ANZ’s application documents guidance for the debt-statement requirement. The old lender’s payout quote determines the closure amount. A displayed balance alone can omit accrued interest or exit costs.

Record a Defensible Recommendation

Record why the recommended loan fits the client’s purpose and budget, alongside the reasons other candidates fail. Keep the client’s facts, the dated product documents and the actual personalised offer in the file. Explain any trade-off the client accepts, such as vehicle security or a longer repayment period.

For the fictional $20,000 scenario, compare unsecured offers first because the client prefers to retain their car outside the loan security. Consider a secured offer only if the total saving warrants that risk. An adverse-credit product enters the assessment when the client’s credit facts require it, rather than because a provider advertises flexibility.

Separate an unresolved offer condition from a final recommendation. For example, a loan awaiting asset valuation cannot support a final secured-loan cost comparison. Record the condition, the person responsible for resolving it and the evidence needed before proceeding.

Tell the client which lenders you can access, your commission or referral arrangement and any fee they pay you. Record panel restrictions and relevant ownership relationships. Apply the same purpose, affordability and cost criteria across accessible products without claiming to have compared the whole market.

Joint Personal Loan Applications

ANZ and NOW Finance accept joint personal loans, as at October 2026. ANZ requires joint applicants to apply in a branch. NOW Finance describes two-applicant personal loans and combined borrowing power on its joint-loan page.

By contrast, National Australia Bank (NAB) requires a sole applicant for its personal loan, as at October 2026. Paying a loan from a joint bank account does not make it a joint credit contract. NAB’s application requirements make that distinction explicit.

For joint applicants, collect each person’s income evidence and credit file. Record each applicant’s commitments.

Count shared household expenses once, while capturing individual debts separately. Each lender decides which income it accepts and whether the combined application passes its credit criteria.

NOW Finance’s joint-loan page says its quote uses the stronger credit profile. That pricing statement does not remove the second applicant’s obligations or make adverse information irrelevant to approval.

A joint loan can fit two people funding a shared expense who both intend to borrow and repay. A guarantor instead agrees to meet obligations if the borrower cannot repay, under the guarantee’s terms. Guarantor availability is a separate product rule, so a joint-applicant product does not establish a guarantor option.

Where the contract makes borrowers jointly and severally liable, the lender can require either borrower to repay the whole outstanding debt. A private agreement to pay half each does not limit the lender’s rights. Explain that consequence to both applicants before they sign, including what happens if one loses income or stops paying.