Firstmac Car Loan Review

Firstmac looks almost exclusively at vehicle age when determining what range to charge a customer. This means whether you are charged their best rate or worst rate depends on how old the vehicle you’re looking at is.

Unlike most lenders, credit score is not something that will impact your interest rate with a Firstmac car loan.

As long your score is above the minimum threshold of 560, the rate charged for a customer with a 1,000+ credit score vs. someone with a score of 560 is exactly the same.Firstmac also rewards environmentally friendly customers who are buying a “green” car (e.g. most new hybrid or electric vehicles) with a 0.7% rate discount.

With Driva, the hard work of figuring out exactly what rate Firstmac will give you and comparing it to other lenders is done for you. Just enter some basic personal information to see what these tailored rates are from Firstmac (and the other lenders on our panel) without impacting your credit score. You can then play around with vehicle age in the rate calculator to determine how it impacts your rate.

Learn: what other lenders look for when pricing your loan

Firstmac charges a variety of fees for their car finance product. As with all Driva lenders, these fees are included in the monthly repayment shown at the time of your instant quote, which is the best point of comparison when deciding which lender to choose when you're looking for a great rate.

These fees include:

• Establishment fees: $495
• Monthly fees: $7.70-$15.00 (depending on risk profile and length of loan)
  
• Early termination fees: Variable, but usually around ~$800
  

Don't forget that every lender charges fees and that these charges (including any money that lenders pay to Driva) are already built into personalised quotes. The monthly repayment figure you see is exactly what will come out of your account each month and fully inclusive of all costs (bye bye hidden fees!).

Firstmac pays us for sending them, high-quality customers. This payment generally includes two components:

• Brokerage: up to $990
• Commission: Up to 4% of the amount financed
  

As with all lender fees, these are not payable from you to Driva directly and are not required to be paid upfront. Rather Firstmac incorporates them into your total loan amount, which is paid off over the life of the loan.

You can not apply with Firstmac directly (only through a broker), and all car loan brokers have access to the same rates. This means that if you're seeing a lower rate for Firstmac somewhere else, it could be because other brokers are showing generic comparison rates that will be increased later in the process because of an older vehicle.

If you still think our rates are higher than you’re seeing them elsewhere, we’d love to know about it and we’re confident we’ll be able to beat it. Email us at hello@driva.com.au.