Some of the top-rated personal loans in April 2024

Australians are reportedly moving away from personal loans, in a partial reversal of an earlier uptick in lending activity earlier in the year. While new data shows a decline in personal lending overall, there are still competitive personal loans available for borrowers who know where to look.

The latest Lending Indicators report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that new loan commitments for personal fixed term loans fell by 0.9% in February 2024 to $2.4 billion. This follows a rise of 5.9% in January, which itself was an exception to a pattern of two previous months of declines.

According to the ABS, the decrease was at least partially driven by a fall of 2.7% in lending for the purchase of road vehicles. Though even without this vehicle finance, a record number of vehicles were sold in February 2024. At the same time, new loan commitments for personal investment (excluding housing) rose by 6.2%.

Before you apply for a personal loan, be sure to do some research, make some calculations, and ensure you’re confident that you can comfortably afford the repayments to help improve the chances that your personal loan application will be accepted. If your personal loan application is declined, you can ask the lender why. If it’s because of something in your credit report, you can order a free copy of your credit file to find the exact details. If there are errors or problems in your credit file, you may be able to take some steps to get these corrected or to improve your credit score before you apply again.

Remember that making too many credit applications over a short period can risk damaging your credit score. All new loan applications and rejections show up on your credit history, and these can potentially taint your track record to future lenders.

RateCity’s Real Time Ratings™ combine the cost and flexibility of personal loans to better indicate their overall value. RateCity’s Personal Loan Leaderboards rank loans in different categories by these ratings, further simplifying your personal loan search. And some of the top-rated personal loans in different categories may also become eligible for a RateCity Gold Award.

(Rankings are correct at the time of publishing. Please note lenders may trade places on the list as interest rates and fees change and RateCity’s tracker reflects these movements.)

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