Canstar announces the winners of its 2021 Personal and Car Loan Awards

Canstar reveals the winners of its 2021 Outstanding Value Personal and Car Loan Awards. Find out who won and how much you could save with a 5-Star Rated loan.

Canstar’s Personal and Car Loan Awards recognise the institutions that provide Outstanding Value to Australian borrowers across their suite of personal and car loan products. This is made up of three individual Awards: Outstanding Value Personal Loans, Outstanding Value Car Loans and Outstanding Value Excellent Credit Personal Loans.

Our researchers considered hypothetical borrowers with varying demographics (such as age, marital status, dependents and employment), financial information (such as income, debts and expenses) and credit bureau information (ranging from those with average credit to excellent credit as outlined by Equifax). To determine the Award winners, Canstar’s researchers applied a variety of pricing scenarios to identify the lenders who best serve a range of customers.

The Awards leverage products included in Canstar’s Star Ratings, which give loans a rating of one to five stars based on their price and features. For example, Canstar considers the interest rate, upfront fees and ongoing fees charged. It also considers features such as the application approval requirements, repayment options and the availability of redraw, top up and offset facilities. This year, Canstar rated 280 products with 46 receiving a 5-Star Rating across the four profiles considered (new car loans, used car loans, secured personal loans and unsecured personal loans).

2021 Personal Loan Award winners

Canstar has awarded six lenders with an Outstanding Value Personal Loans Award. To determine the winners, Canstar considered hypothetical borrowers with ‘average’, ‘very good’ and ‘excellent’ credit as outlined in the Personal and Car Loans Methodology. For this Award, Canstar considered unsecured personal loans in our database.

In alphabetical order, the winners of Canstar’s Outstanding Value Personal Loan Awards are:

• Alex
• Australian Mutual Bank
• Bankwest
• Easy Street Fin Services
• ING
• Summerland Credit Union

2021 Car Loan Award Winners

Canstar has also awarded six institutions with an Outstanding Value Car Loans Award. For this Award, Canstar considered hypothetical borrowers with ‘average’, ‘very good’ and ‘excellent’ credit as outlined in the Personal and Car Loans Methodology, as well as car loans for new and used cars.

In alphabetical order, the winners of Canstar’s Outstanding Value Car Loan Awards are:

• Credit Union SA
• Greater Bank
• loans.com.au
• Teachers Mutual Bank
• The Mac
• UniBank

2021 Excellent Credit Personal Loan Award Winners

Canstar has awarded seven lenders with an Outstanding Value Excellent Credit Personal Loans Award. To determine this Award, Canstar only considered hypothetical borrowers with ‘excellent’ credit as outlined in the Personal and Car Loans Methodology. This Award considered unsecured personal loans.

In alphabetical order, the winners of Canstar’s Outstanding Value Personal Loan Awards are:

• Alex
• Liberty Financial
• MoneyPlace
• Plenti
• SocietyOne
• Summerland Credit Union
• Wisr

How much could you save with a 5-Star Rated loan?

So what difference could a 5-Star Rated loan make? Canstar’s researchers crunched the numbers and found that you could potentially save over $1,300 by choosing a 5-Star Rated unsecured personal loan. This is based on a hypothetical borrower taking out a $15,000 unsecured personal loan repaid over three years. Over the life of this hypothetical loan, the average unsecured personal loan would cost $2,994 in interest plus the application fee (which is assumed to be paid upfront). In comparison, the average 5-Star Rated unsecured personal loan would cost $1,666. That’s a difference of $1,328.

At the time of writing, the average unsecured personal loan on Canstar’s database has an interest rate of 11.09% and an average application fee of $291. In comparison, the average 5-Star Rated unsecured personal loan has an interest rate of 6.63% and an application fee of $84. The average interest rates use the midpoint of the rate range where applicable.

See the full 2021 Personal and Car Loan Star Ratings results. For more information about how our Star Ratings and Awards were determined, read our methodology document.

Cover image source: Nestor Rizhniak/Shutterstock.com