Revealed: Outstanding value business loans and overdrafts in 2019
21 May 2019
Canstar has revealed the 2019 Business Loans and Overdrafts Star Ratings after rating 81 products from 16 lenders on the Canstar database.
Overall, 8 business term loans and 9 overdrafts received a 5-Star Rating in this year’s release.
Canstar’s Business Loans and Overdrafts Star Ratings use a sophisticated and unique ratings methodology that compares both cost and features across business loans. Our star ratings create a shortlist of products to help consumers narrow their search, with 5-Stars indicating products that provide outstanding value to small business customers.
Canstar Research has rated six types of business loans and overdrafts:
- Term Loan – Residentially Secured (secured against residential property)
- Term Loan – Commercially Secured (secured against commercial property)
- Term Loan – Unsecured (no security)
- Overdraft – Residentially Secured (secured against residential property)
- Overdraft – Commercially Secured (secured against commercial property)
- Overdraft – Unsecured (no security)
Products that received 5-Stars for each category are listed below, in alphabetical order:
Residentially Secured Term Loan:
 |
|
| ANZ | Suncorp Bank |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- ANZ Business Loan Variable
- Suncorp Business Essentials Loan
Residentially Secured Overdraft:
|
|
| Heritage Bank | Suncorp Bank |
|---|---|
 |
|
- Heritage Bank Business Line of Credit
- Heritage Bank Business Overdraft
- Suncorp Bank Line of Credit
Commercially Secured Term Loan:
|
||
| ANZ | Bankwest | Suncorp Bank |
|---|---|---|
|
 |
|
- ANZ Business Loan Variable
- Bankwest Business Low Rate Loan
- Suncorp Bank Business Essentials
Commercially Secured Overdraft:
|
|
| Heritage Bank | Westpac |
|---|---|
|
 |
- Heritage Bank Business Line of Credit
- Westpac Business Equity Access
Unsecured Term Loan:
|
||
| ANZ | Bank of Queensland | Bankwest |
|---|---|---|
|
 |
|
- ANZ Business Loan Variable
- Bank of Queensland Business Term Loan
- Bankwest Business Low Rate Loan
Unsecured Overdraft:
|
|||
| Bank of Melbourne | Bank of Queensland | Bank SA | St George Bank |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
 |
 |
- Bank of Melbourne Commercial Overdraft
- Bank of Queensland Business Overdraft
- Bank SA Commercial Overdraft
- St George Bank Commercial Overdraft
How does Canstar rate business loans and overdrafts?
These products are rated based on their comparative pricing and features offered. To arrive at a total score, Canstar applies a weight against the price and feature scores, which will vary from customer profile to profile. For more information about the weighting, refer to the methodology document.
Canstar Research considers the following features when determining a business loan or overdraft’s score:
- Lending terms (such as minimum loan amount and repay frequency)
- Security requirements (unsecured, residential and commercial)
- Loan purpose availability (borrowing entity and purpose such as franchise and development finance)
- Overdraft terms (such as interest payment when in credit and loan review periods)
- Redraw facility (such as facility available, minimum redraw and offset account)
- Portability (such as transfer to another security)
- Repayment capabilities (such as lump sum allowed and balloon payments)
- Split and switch facilities (such as split option, split fee and switching allowed from variable to fixed rates)
- Overdraft functionality (such as overdraft service fee and number of free transactions)
Canstar considers the following loan amounts for this Star Ratings:
- $250,000 and $500,000 for secured business loans
- $50,000 and $125,000 for secured overdrafts
- $20,000 and $50,000 for unsecured business loans and overdrafts
