Personal Loans

There are two main loan types - secured and unsecured. So what’s the difference?

Secured Loan - A secured loan is most often used to buy valuable possessions [assets] like cars (or other assets) and the asset is then used as security against the loan. That means if you fail to make repayments on a secured loan, the asset (the security) may be taken [repossessed] and sold with the proceeds of the sale used to cover the outstanding balance on the loan. With a secured loan, because the loan is ‘asset backed’, the interest rate may be  lower. Find out more about our Car Loans & Equipment Finance >

Unsecured Loan - These loans are often taken out to cover the cost of smaller spending items like a home renovation or holiday – or to consolidate multiple smaller debts into one to help get finances back on track. With an unsecured loan the borrower isn’t providing any security for the loan. This means that the interest rate may be higher as there is no asset to be repossessed and sold in the event of a default.

We give you the flexibility to choose between a fixed or variable rate on your unsecured personal loan.

Fixed interest Rate - A fixed interest rate gives you the comfort of knowing that your interest rate is ‘fixed’ and the certainty that your repayments will not change for the life of the loan. You will have the flexibility to make some additional repayments or pay out your loan ahead of the loan term, however fees may apply if you pay out early.

Variable interest Rate – With a variable interest rate loan, your loan rate and repayments may rise or fall as interest rates change. However, unlike a fixed rate loan, variable rate loans give you the flexibility to make extra repayments or repay your loan in full ahead of the loan term, without paying any additional fees.

We will consider applications that have defaults providing they pass our overall credit score and application lending criteria.

A credit score is generally provided by a credit reporting body and used to represent the creditworthiness of an applicant. Pepper will use credit scores to partly determine if you qualify for a loan, at what interest rate, and what credit limits. Many factors can impact your credit score including number of enquires, adverse credit listings and personal information held on your credit file.

The way our application process works is we give you what we call an ‘indicative serviceability assessment’ before we do any formal credit check. This means, based on the information you provide, we work out if the loan looks like it will fit your financial situation. This step is important because our job is to provide help not create hardship with a loan; we need to be sure that paying back the loan would be manageable for you. You will always be notified before the next step, when the official credit check takes place. When you are at that stage in the process we make sure you give consent for us to access your credit file before we do.

We only accept applications from 1 borrower currently. That’s why it is called a personal loan. So the person applying is the one who has full responsibility for any loan that gets approved.

Your application can be retrieved here.

NOTE: You'll need your personal loan application code handy. You will find your application code in the email or sms we sent to you when saving your application.

If you cannot locate your application code, when retrieving your application select 'resend now'. From there, your application code will be re sent to your email or phone.

If you're still having trouble, please contact us on 1300 659 430.

We accept the following loan puposes for our unsecured personal loans:

Note: We accept multiple loan purposes with each personal loan application.

The following are unacceptable loan purposes:

• Debt consolidation of Pay Day lender debts
• Payout
• Rental
• Mortgage and credit arrears
• Payment of defaults and judgements
• Loans for business purposes

We are Australia’s number 1 non-bank lender, as voted by the Australian Lending Awards 2018, and we live our mission every day: to help people succeed.

We specialise in working on each individual application so we can fully understand your real life situation and help find a suitable solution.

We were set up in 2001 because so many people needed home loans that banks weren’t prepared to offer. Since then we’ve helped over 200,000 Australians who don’t tick all the traditional boxes for home loans – and we also provide personal loans as well as professional equipment and car loans. Learn more about us here.