Caravan & Motorhome Finance

Where you buy changes the paperwork, not whether finance is possible.

New or used from a dealer. The simplest path. The dealer gives us an invoice, the lender pays them directly at settlement, and you tow the van home. Dealer stock is also easier for a lender to value.

Private sale. Very common with vans. Good ones get sold out of a driveway, a caravan park or a social media listing, and lenders are used to funding them. They simply check more. The lender wants proof the seller actually owns the van, a PPSR check to confirm no money is owing against it, and often photos or an inspection. If the seller still has a loan over the van, the lender pays that out directly rather than handing money over and hoping it gets passed on. We organise that legwork, and it usually adds a day or two.

Two things are worth knowing. First, do not hand over a deposit before your finance is formally approved in writing. A seller who will not wait a couple of days is a seller worth being careful with. Second, the van should be registered in the seller's name. A van sold on behalf of someone else, with no paperwork tying the two together, is the kind of deal that stalls at settlement.

Stock also tightens before school holidays. Get the finance side moving first so you are negotiating with an approval in hand rather than asking a seller to wait.

Caravans age differently to cars. A fifteen-year-old van with a straight chassis can be a better buy than a five-year-old one shaken apart on corrugations. A lender cannot see that from a VIN, so it uses rules instead, and those rules are where the panel narrows.

• Age is judged at the end of the term, not at purchase. A twelve-year-old van on a seven-year loan is a nineteen-year-old van to the lender. Shortening the term sometimes brings a lender back into play, so it is worth asking before you give up on a van.
• Secured lending needs something the lender could resell. Mass-produced touring vans and recognised brands are straightforward. Bus conversions, owner-built vans, imported recreational vehicles and heavily modified rigs are harder, and some lenders will not secure against them.
• Identification has to line up. The van needs a VIN or chassis number and a compliance plate the lender can record, matching the registration papers. A missing plate, or a number that does not match, holds up settlement.
• Comprehensive insurance is a condition, not a suggestion. A secured lender requires cover over the van for the life of the loan, with the lender noted on the policy. Get a premium quote before you decide what you can afford, especially on off-road vans.
• Accessories are treated differently to the van. Solar, lithium batteries, a suspension upgrade or an awning generally go into the loan if they are on the purchase invoice. Added later, they are usually a separate conversation.

None of this means an older or unusual van cannot be financed. It means fewer lenders will look at it, so tell us the year, make, model and VIN up front. We would rather go to the lender whose policy already fits than spend your credit file finding out which ones do not.

Most caravan and motorhome loans are secured against the van. The lender registers its interest on the PPSR, where it stays until the loan is repaid, and that security generally means more of the panel is open to you.

When unsecured makes sense. If the van is too old, too unusual or too cheap for anyone on the panel to secure against, an unsecured personal loan can still do the job. Small camper trailers often go this way purely because the amount is low. Unsecured lending tends to come with shorter terms and tighter criteria, so we treat it as the fallback rather than the starting point.

Balloons. A balloon is a lump sum left owing at the end of the term. It lowers the regular repayment and raises the total interest, because you pay interest on that lump the whole way through. Balloons are standard on commercial truck and equipment deals. On caravans they are the exception. They turn up occasionally on motorhomes, usually larger ones, almost never on a camper trailer, and not every consumer lender offers one.

If a balloon is on the table, be honest about how it gets paid. There are three ways out: sell the van, refinance the balloon into a new loan, or pay it from savings. If none of those is a real plan for seven years' time, take the loan without one.

Term length. Vans are bigger purchases than most cars, and lenders usually allow longer terms to match. A longer term brings the repayment down and costs more overall. We will show you both directions rather than defaulting to the longest term on offer.

A fair share of van buyers are at or near the end of their working life. That changes how income is assessed, not whether you can borrow.

Lenders treat retirement income very differently from one another. Some count drawings from an account-based pension. Some count the Age Pension in full, some in part, and some will not lend against it on its own. Self-funded retirees with share and rental income usually evidence it with tax returns rather than payslips. Where one lender's policy stops, another's often does not, which is the point of one enquiry across a panel instead of walking into one branch.

Three things come up often:

• Retiring during the loan term. If you plan to finish work before the loan does, the lender will ask how the repayments continue afterwards. A shorter term, a deposit, or evidence of the income you will move onto usually answers it.
• Going full time on the road. If you intend to give up a fixed address and live in the van, say so early. Some lenders want a residential address they can verify for the life of the loan, and that is far easier to work around before an application than after.
• Paying from superannuation. Whether to buy the van outright from super is a decision for you and a licensed financial adviser. We arrange credit, not financial or tax advice, and we will not tell you what to do with your superannuation.

Having these on hand turns a week into a couple of days. We complete the application from them, so there is far less for you to type.

• Driver licence. A photo of the front and the back.
• Income evidence. Your two most recent payslips, or your last tax return and notice of assessment if you are self-employed or retired.
• 90 days of bank statements. Every account you hold, including savings, offset and credit cards.
• The van details. Year, make, model, VIN or chassis number and the asking price.
• The seller details. On a private sale, the seller's name, address and registration papers. From a dealer, just the invoice.

The asking price is rarely the real number, and the gap is where caravan budgets come unstuck.

• Transfer and registration. Moving the registration into your name costs money, and on a private sale it is your job, not the lender's.
• Towing gear. A tow bar rated for the van, a brake controller, towing mirrors and sometimes a weight distribution hitch. It is spent on the car rather than the van, so it generally sits outside the loan.
• Insurance. Comprehensive cover is required by any secured lender, and vans are not cheap to insure once contents and an annexe are included.
• Fees at settlement. Lenders charge establishment and ongoing account fees, and they differ by lender and product. We set those out in writing, separately from the rate, so you can compare like with like.
• Running it. Storage if it will not fit at home, annual servicing, and tyres that age out well before they wear out.

Borrowing a little above the purchase price to cover on-road costs is sometimes possible and sometimes not, depending on the lender and what the van is worth. Ask before you assume either way.