Impressing the panel at financial comparison site Mozo.com.au, NOW Finance has taken out 2 titles in their annual Mozo Experts Choice Awards for Personal Loans.
NOW Finance stood out from the crowd to win awards for best Excellent Credit Unsecured Loan and best Excellent Credit Secured Loan.
The Mozo Experts Choice Awards for Personal Loans are released in November for the year to follow. This year, Mozo compared 250 loan products from 86 providers to find the cream of the crop. So what made NOW Finance stand out?
Interest rates are determined by a combination of factors, including income, savings, and credit – this is called risk-based pricing. Both of NOW Finance’s wins were in the category of best loan for Excellent Credit. This means that where NOW really shines is in rewarding borrowers for having excellent credit histories.
Fees are also taken into consideration in Mozo’s awards process, as fees combine with interest rates to create an overall price paid on top of the loan amount. This is another area where NOW has an edge, charging no establishment fees or ongoing service fees.
Adding up those numbers to choose the right loan for you is an important process. Though two loans may have very similar interest rates, there may be a big difference in the amount you end up paying. If an interest rate seems low but a partnering comparison rate is much higher, you could be setting yourself up for a future of high fees.
On top of this, minor differences in percentages can play out in big ways over time. If you’re taking out a $15,000 loan for 5 years and paying it back monthly with no extra repayments, a loan with a 9.8% p.a. interest rate (the current average starting interest rate for an unsecured loan in the Mozo database) looks very different to a loan with a starting rate of 6.75% p.a. (the starting interest and comparison rate for NOW Finance’s unsecured personal loan).
The first loan, calculated at the average, will end up costing you $4,034 in interest – $19,034 in total – with monthly instalments of $317. The second, using NOW’s comparison rate, will cost $2,715 in interest and $17,715 in total, making monthly payments come to $295. The monthly repayments may seem similar, but there ends up being over $1,000 difference in the long run.
As rates change, Mozo calculated figures using the 2022 dates and corresponding rates of 12 August, 12 September, and 12 October. As NOW’s fees and rates are the same for all loans, Mozo used the standard loan calculation of a $10,000 loan over a 3 year term. As these fell into the risk-based pricing categories, different customer scenarios were created to analyse how the loan performed against other options in each instance.
NOW Finance’s low rates and lack of fees has made them Mozo award-winners for three years running.
Disclaimer: This article contains general comments and recommendations only. This article has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before taking any action you should consider the appropriateness of the comments made in the article, having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. If this article relates to the acquisition, or possible acquisition, of a particular credit product you should obtain and consider the relevant disclosure documents before applying for the product. The information in this article is considered to be true and correct at the date of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may affect the accuracy of the information.
