“When I first started looking around for a car at dealerships, and they were talking about five, six and seven-year car loans I wasn’t interested,” says the 49-year-old support worker.
“I wanted a three or four-year loan that I could pay off quickly without any early pay-out fees.”
Determined to find a loan that worked for him, rather than penalised him for being a good payer, Ricky spoke to a broker, who recommended Finance One.
“Finance One was the only one who would let me make extra payments without any penalty,” Ricky says.
“I could pay the car off quicker without any hassle. If I wanted to get rid of the loan in two-and-a-half or three years, it was up to me. That’s what made me choose them.”
“Finance One was the only one who would let me make extra payments without any penalty.”
So in 2018 Ricky went ahead and borrowed $10,000 from Finance One for his first car — a 2009 model Subaru Impreza. In his role as a support worker, Ricky needed a reliable car for transporting clients and the Impreza fit the bill. There was only one thing missing — a fun car for his time off.
“The next time I rang my contact at Finance One, Luke Newton, was to say ‘Look, I want to get another vehicle I can use outside of work. How do we go about it?’.”
“I put the application in with Luke on the Friday and he called me on the Monday to say the board had approved a second loan.”
For his ‘me-time’ car, Ricky chose a top-of-the-range Kia Sorrento with only 80,000 kilometres on the odometer.
“The lady at the car dealership was surprised I already had the pre-approval,” Ricky recalls.
“She called Luke to check and he said ‘Yes, we’ll be paying for the car, please send through the invoice.’”
“I looked at the Kia on the Wednesday and it was paid for by noon on the Friday. When I picked it up that afternoon, the lady at the dealership was still shaking her head in disbelief, saying it usually takes a week to turn-around finance. But, sure enough, there was a direct debit in the dealer’s bank account for the car as promised and she handed over the keys.”
Better yet, there were no set-up fees for the loan for the Kia and, like with the Subaru Impreza, no early payout fees to worry about.
“I pay more than I need to on both cars and am looking to have the Subaru paid off next April,” says Ricky.
“And the Kia, which I bought in December 2019, I’d like to pay off within three years.”
In the event of an emergency, Ricky also has the peace of mind that Finance One will be there.
“In April 2019 I had an issue with the exhaust sensors on the Subaru playing up,” Ricky recalls.
“It was going to cost $1800 to fix so I called Luke to see if he could help. He said ‘No worries’, closed the old loan and made a new one with the $1800 added so I could get the car fixed. Within a day I had approval and, within four days, the car was fixed.”
“I’d recommend Finance One to anyone because of their flexibility and personal service. They listen to you and help you get what you need without any judgment. At no point did Luke say ‘Do you think that’s a good idea or can you afford that?’ He said ‘You’re still under your budget, talk to me…’”
“If you do the right thing, they’ll look after you.”
