Finding an affordable car loan in Australia is not difficult. There are a great many lenders with money to lend and they are on the lookout for customers to lend it to. Lenders include banks, credit unions, private lending institutions and car sealers. They all have their own criteria for approval and collection, if the applicant defaults on the loan.

Before applying for a loan, it is necessary to take a hard look at your finances. Always check your credit report and know exactly where it stands. Keep your credit as high as possible and if something negative appears, make sure it is a legitimate charge and work to fix whatever it is. If it is late payments, begin a new plan to make timely payments. If you have defaulted on a loan, work to pay that loan off.

If you have debt, and it does not matter what the debt is from, work to pay that debt down. One of the pieces of information a lender will look at is accumulated debt. If you have too much debt to pay off, a loan may be denied. Keep credit cards to a minimum and do not keep them charged up to the max. Consider a debt consolidation loan and pay off all extraneous debt before applying for a car loan.

Make sure your budget will allow a monthly car payment. There are online calculators available to help you estimate a monthly payment and see where it falls within your budget. Don’t forget to include insurance, taxes, and maintenance and repair costs in your budgeted car allotment.

There are ways to manipulate a car loan and the ways include negotiating a lower interest rate and applying a high down payment. It is important to look at a payment and how it will affect your budget not only for the short term, but for the long term. This will allow you to consider the most appropriate loans and then finally picking the loan that is best for you.

There are car loan comparison rate charts on the Internet that lists all the best rates, according to your criteria. The chart will note the advertised interest rate and the approximate monthly payment.