Personal loan guide - borrow with confidence

To be eligible for a CommBank Secured Personal Loan, you’ll need to:

• Buy a new or used car – the car must be up to seven years old
• Take out a loan from $4,000 to $120,000 - the amount can be for the full or partial purchase price depending on whether you’ve paid a deposit
• Not have any finance owing on it
• Have comprehensive insurance

Before applying for a Secured Personal Loan, you can check if there is any outstanding finance on the vehicle using the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). 

PPSR is a national online register managed by the federal government. A PPSR search can help to ensure that you do not buy or lease property or goods that:

• are stolen
• have not been paid off
• have been written off
• have been used to secure a loan or debt.

You can find out more on Personal Property Securities Register

For a vehicle to be eligible for a Secured Personal Loan, the borrower is required to have comprehensive insurance.

There are different types of insurance that may be relevant to a vehicle, including:

1. Comprehensive Insurance: This type of insurance covers your vehicle for collision or impact damage, theft, vandalism, fire and extreme weather events
2. Third-Party Insurance: This type of insurance provides coverage for damage you cause to other people's cars or property in an accident.

See these car insurance options

Our Secured Personal Loan is a loan guaranteed by an asset, such as the car you’re planning to buy. The asset used to guarantee the loan, in this example the car, is what we call security. If you don’t make the agreed repayments, the lender may take action, which could include repossession of the car to sell it to cover the cost of an outstanding loan. This security means that the lender could offer a lower interest rate for the loan.

If you’re applying for a Secured Personal Loan, please refer to the additional documents listed below depending on your situation.

You’ll be asked to confirm that you have, or will have, comprehensive car insurance for the car that you’re buying and using as security for the Secured Personal Loan before CommBank funds the loan. Ensure that you have your name as the policy holder or co-holder and CommBank as the interested party/secured finance provider.

• If you’re buying a car from a dealership
  
  Please provide us with the following:
  
  
  • A tax invoice from the dealership clearly showing the dealership's details, the car details, the purchase price and the outstanding balance (including any details of deposits being paid). You can use the Vehicle Tax Invoice Request Form to request this from the dealership.
     
• If you’re buying a car privately
  
  Please provide us with all the following:
  
  
  • A completed Private Sales Invoice Form, including the seller's details (including their bank account details), the car details, purchase price and outstanding balance (including any details of deposits being paid), AND
  • The car's certificate of registration showing the car details (get a copy from your seller).

 

It’s money you pay back to a lender, usually on a regular basis, to repay a loan or debt.
A repayment typically consists of two parts:

• Principal: The amount of money that you borrow from the lender, which is the original amount of the loan.
• Interest: The amount of money that you pay to the lender for borrowing the principal amount.

In addition to the principal amount and interest, a repayment may also include fees. These can include loan service fees, late payment fees, or other charges associated with the loan.

You can use the repayment calculator to estimate your repayments based on the bank’s representative rate and your selected loan amount, loan term and loan type.

You can choose weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayments. If you prefer weekly or fortnightly repayments, the amount you are required to pay each month will depend on how many weekly (4 or 5) or fortnightly (2 or 3) payment dates fall in that month.

Find out more in the CommBank Personal Loan Terms and Conditions

Your repayment schedule will tell you:

• How much you need to pay each month
• When your first repayment is due
• The due date for each subsequent repayment (the same day each month, unless it falls on a non-business day, in which case it will be the next business day)

Keep in mind:

• If you've made extra repayments, you'll still be required to meet your normal payment each month if you don't have sufficient funds built up to cover this.
  
• The loan term, repayment details, and total interest charges quoted in your repayment schedule are estimates. The actual figures will depend on factors such as when you make repayments and whether interest rates change

For Unsecured Variable Rate Personal Loans, you can make extra repayments at any time. These may enable you to redraw funds, subject to conditions. If you make an extra repayment or we reduce your interest rate, we may reduce your monthly repayment amount to the minimum necessary to repay within the loan term.

For Unsecured Fixed Rate and Secured Personal Loans, you can make extra repayments to your loan, however an Early Repayment Adjustment¹ may apply. Extra repayments cannot be redrawn.

When you take out a personal loan, you agree to make your minimum required repayment every week, fortnight or month over the life of your loan. When you choose to make additional payments above what is required, this becomes your available redraw. 

A redraw facility is a flexible way to access any additional payments you’ve made on your personal loan. Redraw is available only on our Unsecured Variable Rate Loans, and there are no redraw fees.

If you repay your loan in full before the end of the loan term, we may charge an Early Repayment Adjustment. This fee is charged only on our Unsecured Fixed Rate and Secured Personal Loans.