When completing an assessment for finance for a car, boat, trailer, caravan or leisure craft, we are often asked why so much information is required.
Just give me a rate!
We can certainly provide a range of rates available in the market, but this does not mean you will get that rate. Why?
Every person is different. Different jobs, different residential circumstances (renting or mortgage, boarding or living with parents) different income and different expenses. All of this information goes into an assessment to find a lender who will most likely lend, and that lenders rates, repayments and conditions.
A brokers job
When you provide information to a broker, it is DIFFERENT to provide directly to a lender. A lender will ask you to complete an application for finance. You will get a pre-approval (with their rate) or a decline or a request for more information. You will also have an entry of the application appear on your credit file.
A Broker (like Step Finance) will ask for the information, we will assess it, match you to a lender, provide you rate and repayment and the likelihood of approval. All WITHOUT an entry on your credit file.
Our job is to screen your information prior to submitting to the appropriate lender. This protects your credit score and gets you approved first time in most circumstances.
What information is required?
Minimum information that we need to perform an assessment is:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Address history (3 years)
- Employment history (3 years)
- Income
- Expenses
- Any current loans
This provides us a picture of your circumstance. If you don’t provide your expenses, we can’t assess whether you can afford a loan and the likelihood of moving forward is next to zero.
We are not the lender
A Broker is not the lender. We act as an intermediatary between you (the applicant) and the lender. We do the negotiation on your behalf, we provide all the information the lender needs to approve. We also provide background information to the credit analysts who will assess your application.
Being up-front
A broker will not judge you, they will not think less of you if you provide information that is not great. Our role is to match you based on the circumstance you are in. If you’ve had late payments. tell us. If you’ve got high expenses, let us know.
Hiding this will just stall the process and we will not have the information we need to give you the quote you are looking for. We will also do a lot of work that isn’t required!
Bank statements
We are often faced with clients who do not want to provide bank statements. Of the 25+ lenders we deal with, ALL of them will want to see bank statements. 90 days worth. This is a lender requirement and you will not be approved without them. Bank statements are provided digitally through bankstatements.com.au. Lenders do not accept manual statements anymore. Digital bank statements reduce fraud. (people editing or creating false bank statements to hide issues)
The benefits of providing digital bank statements is that it verifies income and expenses and the lender will approve quickly and potentially provide a better rate.
If there are issues in the bank statements, we will advise you up-front. Some examples are:
- Stated income not matching what is being put in the bank
- Excessive gambling spend
- Large or frequent cash withdrawals
- Frequent external transfers (which aren’t disclosed)
- Undeclared loan repayments
- Frequent overdrawn account balances (days in negative balance)
- Direct Debit dishonours
All of these issues will eventually be seen by the lender if not declared. Or, they will not proceed if you refuse to provide. If we know about them up-front, we can work with you over time to correct these issues.
Final word
Working with a broker has huge advantages. Providing the information early and completely will mean the difference between a quick approval or a long drawn-out process.
Disclaimer: The articles, words, thoughts and opinions on this website are those of the author/s and are general in nature. Any and all information provided does not constitute financial or general advice to you from Step Finance., it’s authors, it’s webmaster or anyone associated with Step Finance. When considering financial or insurance products, you should seek your own independent advice from the relevant professional.