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If your situation is not straightforward, we can help you work through your loan options and find finance that fits.
Question After Question...
If you’re reading this, you might be wondering, “Why the heck is this broker asking me so many questions?!”
Don’t worry. We’re not just being nosy or looking for reasons to make things difficult. There are some very good reasons behind all the questions, we promise!
You might start a finance enquiry expecting to talk about how much you want to borrow and what the repayments could look like. Before long, we’re asking about your income, expenses, existing debts, employment, credit history and half a dozen other things that may not seem directly related to the loan.
So what are we actually trying to find out, and why can one answer lead to another three questions? Let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
We Need to Understand the Situation First
One of the biggest misconceptions about using a broker is that we start by asking, “Which lender will approve this?”
We don’t.
First, we need to understand what we’re actually working with. That means looking at things like how your income is earned, what debts and repayments already exist, how much you want to borrow, what the money is for, and whether there are any credit issues or recent changes that could affect the picture.
For a home loan, that may also include your deposit or available equity. For other types of finance, the asset being purchased or the purpose of the loan can become more important.
So before we think about where an application might go, we want to understand the shape of the whole situation. That gives us a much better starting point than picking a lender first and trying to make everything fit afterwards.
Small Details Can Change the Options More Than You’d Expect
One of the reasons we ask so many follow-up questions is that a detail that sounds minor can completely change how we look at your situation.
If you tell us part of your income comes from overtime or commission, that naturally leads to questions about how long you’ve been earning it and how regularly it appears. If you mention a default that has been paid, we’ll want to know when it happened, when it was paid and what your credit history has looked like since.
The same goes for debts. A credit card with a small balance can still matter if the limit is high. A recently paid-out loan may need to be confirmed as closed. Tax debt, several recent credit enquiries or Centrelink income alongside wages can all lead us down a slightly different path.
Debt consolidation is another good example. If you want to bring several debts together, we’re not only interested in the balances. We’ll want to understand how the debt built up, what the repayments are doing to your budget and whether restructuring it would actually improve the position.
So when one answer leads to another two or three questions, we’re not working through a nosy questionnaire just for the sake of it. We’re joining the dots so we understand the situation properly before an application goes anywhere.
Why It’s Better to Tell Us the Awkward Stuff Early
Honesty really is the best policy when it comes to a finance application. If there’s something in your finances that feels awkward or difficult to explain, tell us early. We’re not here to judge.
If it’s likely to show up on a credit report, bank statement or supporting document later, we’d rather understand it before we start considering lenders and making plans that might be derailed.
It may not change anything at all. We might just need some extra context or documentation. In other cases, it could change which lenders are worth considering or whether applying right now makes sense.
You don’t need to make the situation sound perfect for us. We need the real version so we can work with it properly.
More Questions Can Actually Save Time
It can feel like all the questions are slowing things down. Quite often, they’re doing the opposite.
Five extra questions at the start can be much easier than finding out halfway through an application that a lender won’t accept a particular type of income, an existing debt was treated differently than expected, or another detail changes the whole direction.
By getting those things clear early, we may be able to avoid unnecessary paperwork, changing lenders midway through the process, or making an application that was never a good fit in the first place.
And if an application does get declined, understanding what caused the decline before trying again can help avoid running into the same problem twice.
That last point is particularly important because a formal credit application can leave an enquiry on your credit report. We don’t want to add one unnecessarily just to discover something we could have worked out beforehand.
So if we keep digging a little deeper before anything goes in, there’s usually a reason. A bit more work upfront can save a lot more work later.
Check Your Options
If your situation isn’t straightforward, a few extra questions at the start can make a big difference to what we look at next.
We’ll take the time to understand your income, debts, credit history and what you’re trying to achieve before deciding which options may be worth exploring.
Tom is the founder of BrightCredit and a finance broker focused on borrowing situations that are not straightforward. His writing helps Australians understand credit, loans, and the details that can affect their borrowing options in a clearer, more practical way.