Personal Loan Rates by Credit Score in Australia

Your Equifax credit score sets the interest rate you are offered more than any other single factor. In Australia, personal loan rates run from around 7.5% a year for the strongest credit files to 20% or more for the weakest — on the same loan, for the same amount, over the same term. On a $20,000 loan that gap is worth close to $7,000.

This page gives you the rate range at every score band, what Equifax itself says each band means, and what the difference costs in dollars.

Personal loan rates by credit score

Equifax scores Australian credit files from 0 to 1,200. The bands below are the tiers used by the calculators on this site — they are pricing tiers, not Equifax's own category names, which are a separate thing covered further down.

These are indicative ranges, not quotes. Two things follow from the table that are worth saying plainly.

Owning property is worth about 2 percentage points. Every non-homeowner figure above is the homeowner range with 2% added to both ends. Lenders treat home ownership as a stability signal even on an unsecured loan, where the property is not security for anything.

The bands are not evenly spaced. Moving from 650 to 700 is worth more than moving from 850 to 1,000. The steepest part of the curve sits between 650 and 800, which is exactly where most Australians who have had a bump on their credit file end up.

What your score actually means to Equifax

The rate tiers above are about pricing. Equifax's own bands are about something different: the likelihood that an adverse event — a default, a serious late payment, a court judgement — gets recorded on your file in the next 12 months. That is what the score was built to predict, and it is why lenders lean on it.

Notice that "Average" covers a 200-point spread, from 460 to 660. That single band spans three of the pricing tiers in the first table. Someone at 470 and someone at 655 are both "Average" to Equifax and are priced very differently by a lender.

Why the band names don't line up with the rate tiers

This trips people up constantly, so it is worth being explicit: a "Good" score from Equifax does not mean you land in a good rate tier.

Equifax's bands answer "how risky is this file?" on a population-wide basis. Lenders answer a narrower question: "what do we need to charge to lend $20,000 unsecured to this person for five years?" They set their own cut-offs, and those cut-offs cluster around round numbers — 650, 700, 800 — rather than around Equifax's 661 or 735.

The practical upshot: a score of 665 is "Good" by Equifax's naming and still sits in the 650–699 pricing tier at 12–16%. Crossing into 700 is worth more to your wallet than crossing into "Good" was.

What the difference actually costs

Rate bands stay abstract until you put a loan against them. Here is $20,000 over 5 years, using the top of each band as a homeowner:

The distance between the top and bottom rows is $115 a month and $6,883 in interest — same loan, same term, same repayments made on time. That is the entire argument for spending three months on your credit file before applying rather than after being turned down.

Use the calculator on this page to run your own numbers. Put in the rate from your band, and it will show you the repayment weekly, fortnightly and monthly across three, five and seven years at once. Changing the term is often more powerful than people expect: the same loan over three years instead of seven cuts the interest roughly in half.

The three things dragging your band down

This is where Equifax is genuinely useful, because it publishes the factors that most commonly hold down scores in each band. They are not the same at every level, which is why generic advice about "paying bills on time" helps some people far more than others.

Below Average (0–459)

The heaviest factors, in order:

1. Payment defaults, late payments of 30 days or more, or default judgements recorded on the file
2. The number and type of credit applications, particularly frequent applications for unsecured lending
3. Use of short-term credit facilities — payday lending and Buy Now Pay Later

Equifax's guidance for this band is to make every bill and credit payment on time, and to restrict the number of new credit applications.

At this level the rate is rarely the real obstacle. A file with an unpaid default on it is an Unlikely — needs improvement outcome with most lenders regardless of what rate you would accept, so the work is on the file itself rather than on shopping around.

Average (460–660)

1. The number and type of credit applications, with frequent applications for unsecured lending
2. Multiple credit applications in a short time frame
3. Instability of residence or employment

Equifax's guidance: pay everything on time, and reduce unnecessary credit facilities such as multiple credit cards.

Two of those three factors are about applications, not about repayment history. This is the band where people damage themselves by shopping around badly — five applications in a fortnight reads as distress, and every one of them leaves a mark whether or not it succeeded.

Good (661–734)

1. The number and type of credit applications
2. Demonstrating no arrears or defaults
3. Length of credit history

Equifax's guidance: limit applications for unsecured credit.

Here the file is essentially clean and the score is being held back by activity and age. Length of credit history is the one factor you cannot hurry — closing your oldest credit card to "tidy up" before applying usually works against you.

Very Good (735–852)

1. Demonstrating no arrears or defaults
2. Length of credit history, and evidence of longer-term credit relationships
3. The nature and frequency of credit applications

Equifax's guidance: reduce and minimise credit enquiries and applications.

Excellent (853–1,200)

1. Demonstrating no arrears or defaults
2. Length of credit history, with evidence of longer-term credit relationships
3. Residential mortgage activity

Equifax's guidance: keep paying on time, and limit exposure to unsecured credit.

The pattern across all five bands is worth stopping on. At the bottom, the score is about damage — defaults and short-term credit. In the middle, it is about behaviour — how often you apply. At the top, it is about history — how long you have held credit and handled it well. Advice aimed at one band is frequently useless in another.

What else moves your rate

Your score sets the range. Three other things decide where inside it you land, and one thing people expect to matter usually doesn't.

Home ownership

Worth about 2 percentage points, as the first table shows. It applies even when the loan is unsecured and the property is not attached to it in any way.

Loan size and term

Smaller loans often carry higher rates than larger ones, because the lender's fixed costs are spread across less money. Longer terms can also price slightly higher, since more can go wrong over seven years than over three.

What your bank statements show

Lenders read the last three months of transactions. Regular payday lending, gambling that runs to a meaningful share of your income, or wage advances will change the outcome no matter what your score says. A strong score sitting above a chaotic account often produces a Possible — lender dependent result rather than a strong one.

What doesn't move it much

Your income. Income affects how much you can borrow, and whether you pass affordability at all — but it has surprisingly little effect on the *rate* you are offered on an unsecured personal loan. A high earner with a 620 score is generally priced off the 620.

Moving up a band before you apply

Three actions are worth more than everything else combined, in this order:

1. Clear any unpaid default. Paying it does not remove the listing, but it changes it from unpaid to paid, and that distinction moves outcomes more than any other single change on a credit file.
2. Stop applying. Every application leaves a hard enquiry visible to the next lender for five years. If you have made several recently, waiting three to six months before your next application does real work on its own.
3. Check your file for errors. Listings that are not yours, incorrect amounts and defaults recorded without proper notice are all more common than people assume, and all correctable at no cost.

You are entitled to a free copy of your Equifax credit report every three months. Checking your own file is a soft enquiry — it is invisible to lenders and has no effect on your score. There is no downside to looking before you apply, and doing it means you can put your real score into the rate table above rather than guessing.