Find car loans: an inspection sheet for a car loan

Find car loans: an inspection sheet for the loan

The car gets an inspection. So can the loan.

A roadworthy sheet works down a vehicle one item at a time, with an empty box beside each. This sheet does the same for the money side of buying a car: who is lending, what the lender has to check, what the contract has to show, and what the law says happens if the car is taken back.

Each item comes from ASIC, its Moneysmart service, Scamwatch, the Personal Property Securities Register or the legislation itself, and the source is linked where it is used. No lender, dealer or broker is named, and no interest rate is quoted.

General information

A guide published by Dotto. General information, not financial or legal advice: it does not arrange loans or give financial advice. To check a rule for yourself, start with ASIC’s Moneysmart.

Six items, worked down in order

Each item has its own page. The boxes are left empty on purpose: this is a way of reading a car loan, not a verdict on any lender.

Is the lender licensed?

The Australian credit licence number, ASIC’s Professional Registers, and why the dealership arranging the finance may not appear there.

Rule: National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, s 29

What the lender must check

Responsible lending when the thing being bought is a car: running costs, balloon payments, and a loan in one name for a car in another.

Rule: the Act, ss 128–133, and ASIC Regulatory Guide 209

What the contract must show

The Credit Code’s list, from the lender’s name to the commission and any credit-related insurance paid for with the loan.

Rule: National Credit Code, ss 16–22

Car loan scams

A lender that is not who it says, the car that secures a loan, and a loan taken out in someone else’s name.

Rule: ASIC, PPSR, Scamwatch and Moneysmart warnings

Money owing on a used car

What a PPSR registration means to a buyer and a seller, and what the search certificate cannot tell anyone.

Rule: the PPSR’s guidance, and the Credit Code, s 51

If the lender wants the car back

The default notice, the court-consent rule for smaller balances, the 21 days after a repossession, and the debt a sale can leave.

Rule: National Credit Code, ss 85–107

Three parties can sit behind one signature

Moneysmart warns that finance arranged at the car dealership can mean “paying fees to several people”, with a broker as well as the lender. Its suggestion is to ask who is involved, and what additional fees are included, before signing.

ASIC’s review of car lending, published in June 2026, found that lenders lean heavily on third-party distributors, such as car dealerships, independent brokers and aggregators with broker networks, and that these distributors have the direct contact with consumers while lenders are often one step removed. An ASIC Commissioner put the point in one line: “Responsibility for consumer outcomes cannot be outsourced.”

Borrowersigns as the debtor

the credit contract

Lenderthe credit provider

Dealer or brokerarranges the finance for the borrower and introduces the business to the lender

The contract must name the credit provider, and where a commission is paid by or to it for introducing the business, the contract must say so, who pays it, who receives it and, if it can be worked out, how much.

The dealer’s place in that picture has its own rule. Regulations under the Act exempt a supplier of goods from needing its own credit licence when it acts for a credit provider on credit that will wholly or predominantly pay for the supplier’s goods, but only where that credit provider is “a licensee, a registered person or an exempt special purpose funding entity”, in the regulation’s words, and is a linked credit provider of the supplier. The exemption does not apply where the goods were supplied as a result of unsolicited contact with the consumer. Item 1 explains what that means on the register.

Notes from ASIC’s inspection of car lending

In June 2026 ASIC published Report 832, Lifting the bonnet, after examining data from over 350,000 loans across eight car finance providers. Four of its findings bear on the items in this sheet.

The purchase price of a financed car was often significantly higher than the lender-verified “book value” of the car, which ASIC says raises the risk that selling the car later will not cover the loan.

Four of the lenders gave data on over 250 loans where the car had been repossessed. In nearly 90% of those cases, the consumer still owed over half the original loan amount after the repossession.

Some consumers complained of lenders contacting them to pursue debt collection despite a hardship variation being in place to manage arrears.

The lenders approved a lower proportion of hardship variations for consumers in regional and remote locations than in other locations.

Where the official checks live

The sign-off box of this sheet: the public places each item points back to.

A licence

ASIC’s Professional Registers Search covers credit licensees and credit representatives, searchable by name, licence number, ACN or ABN.

A used car

The PPSR used car search shows whether a security interest is registered against the car, which usually indicates money owing on it.

A scam

Moneysmart’s advice is to act fast if a scam is suspected, and to report it to Scamwatch.

A complaint

Where a borrower is unhappy with what a lender has done and cannot reach agreement, Moneysmart points to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority for “free, independent dispute resolution”.

Repayments getting hard

Moneysmart says financial counsellors offer “free, independent and confidential help” and may negotiate with a credit provider. The National Debt Helpline is on 1800 007 007, Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 4.30 pm.

The rules themselves

The National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, with the National Credit Code as its Schedule 1, on the Federal Register of Legislation.