Before you negotiate, what does this actually cost?

What it is: You put in a quote exactly as it was given to you - rate, factor rate, fees, a flat total, whatever you were handed.
What you get: One number: what the money really costs over a year, and the dollars you pay on top of what you borrow.
Why it helps: Two offers written to look different become two numbers you can hold side by side.

Work out the real cost →

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Fact / calculation

Objective information or arithmetic based on what you enter.

Market context

Publicly available information about how commercial lending products and structures commonly work.

Smart Advance lens

Our educational interpretation. It helps you ask better questions; it is not a lender decision or product recommendation.

What kind of finance is it?

Different products are priced in completely different ways. Pick the one you are looking at and the form changes to match.

The product

The offer, as it was given to you

How much are you borrowing? ($)

How is it priced?

Interest rate

The headline number you were quoted. If a private or short-term lender quoted it per month, switch the dropdown rather than converting it yourself.

Over how long? (months)

How often do you repay?

Balloon or residual at the end ($)

Leave at 0 if there is none. On a chattel mortgage this is the balloon; on a lease it is the residual, and they behave differently for GST.

The fees — where most of the surprise lives

Establishment or set-up fee ($)

Is that fee taken out, or added on?

This changes the answer. Ask which one it is.

Ongoing fee, per repayment ($)

Any other one-off fees ($)

Legal, valuation, settlement, broker — anything you pay to get it.

Exit, discharge or early payout fee ($)

Charged when the loan ends. On short-term secured money this is often the second largest number in the contract, and it is rarely on the front page.

What is moving your price

A handful of things decide where in a lender’s range you land, and they matter more than which lender you pick. Tick whatever applies.

You need it fast — days, not weeks. Speed is the single most expensive thing you can ask for. There is something on the credit file — a default, a judgment, an old arrangement. There is ATO debt, arranged or otherwise. The financials are behind, thin, or do not show the whole picture — late lodgements, a bad year, a restructure. The security is somewhere lenders are cautious about — a small town, a single-industry area, a specialised or hard-to-sell property. The asset is unusual, specialised or older — hard to value and harder to resell. The business is young — under two years on this ABN. Someone else is already secured against it — you would be second in line.

Produced by the Cost of Finance at smartadvance.com.au. General information to help you ask better questions — not a credit decision, a personalised recommendation, or an offer of finance. Figures and lender positions change; check the date above.

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