Priya took out her first loan with Fundo back in April. Her car had failed rego for the second time that year, the exhaust this time, and it needed fixing before Monday, the same day she needed it to get to work. She applied on her lunch break and was approved by the time she got back to her desk, money in her account before she’d even left the mechanic’s that evening. Nothing unusual there. That part of the story is the same one thousands of Fundo customers could tell.<\/span><\/p>\n Six months later, the same car found a new way to let her down. Priya borrowed again, same rough amount, same kind of expense, and if she’s honest, she wasn’t expecting anything to be different this time. Same app, same five minutes of details, same number at the end, or so she figured.<\/span><\/p>\n It didn’t look the same. The rate she was offered was noticeably better than the one she’d had six months earlier, good enough that she got in touch to check nothing had glitched on our end. Nothing had. She’d paid on time, every time, and that counted for more with us than her credit score ever would. Good borrowers get better rates, that was the whole point.<\/span><\/p>\n Because your rate is moving away from one flat number and toward something based on your own financial situation and repayment history, for loans between $2,001 and $10,000. For a long time, every Fundo customer borrowing the same amount in that range was offered the same rate, whether it was their first loan or their fifth, whether they had paid off every installment early or late a few times. One number, same for everyone, regardless of anything either of them had actually done.<\/span><\/p>\n Picture two customers side by side. One has borrowed from us twice before and paid both loans back without missing a beat. The other is applying for the first time, in a shakier financial position, more likely to need a bit of flexibility along the way. Under the old system, they would have been offered exactly the same rate. That treats two very different situations as identical, and it meant we had no way to do right by the customer who had actually earned a better deal. And it never gave someone like Priya, who pays reliably and manages her money well, any real reason to come back to us rather than shop around elsewhere. A flat rate can’t tell the difference between her and someone we’ve never met before. That’s the part we’re changing.<\/span><\/p>\n Two things mainly: your income and financial situation as it stands today, and if you have borrowed from us before, how that went, whether you paid on time, needed help along the way, or closed the loan out cleanly.<\/span><\/p>\n It is a similar idea to how car insurance or home insurance works. Two drivers with the same car and the same postcode do not pay the same premium, because the insurer is pricing the actual risk in front of them, not an average across everyone. Nobody finds that strange or underhanded when an insurer does it. We are applying the same logic to lending, we are just less used to seeing it there.<\/span><\/p>\n This is also different from how most lenders set your rate. Most price you largely off your credit score, one external number pulled from your whole credit history, everywhere you’ve ever borrowed. We don’t. We look at your borrowing behaviour with Fundo and your money behaviour more broadly, not just what’s sitting on a credit bureau file somewhere. That means a bad credit score doesn’t shut the door here, you can still get a loan with us, and sometimes even a good rate.<\/span><\/p>\n What matters isn’t one single number, it’s the overall picture, how settled your situation is right now, and how you’ve handled things with us before. The steadier that picture, the better position you’re in, and that’s genuinely something within your control.<\/span><\/p>\n You are not locked out. Every application is assessed on its own situation, whether it is your first loan with us or your fifth, and plenty of first-time applicants are approved at rates well within what we have always offered.<\/span><\/p>\n A less established financial picture might mean you sit at a different point in the range than someone with years of clean repayments behind them, but it does not mean the door is closed, and it does not mean your rate can suddenly move against you for reasons you cannot see. If anything, this new approach is meant to give first-time customers something the old flat rate never could, a rate that reflects where you actually are right now, rather than being priced as if you were the riskiest person we lend to.<\/span><\/p>\n No. Your rate will come from your own application, and you’ll see the real number, in full, before you agree to anything, so there’s nothing to switch on to you later. Most people also land somewhere higher up the range than the lowest number on offer, and that’s still genuinely your own rate, not a downgrade from some standard everyone else got.<\/span><\/p>\n This is not a headline number designed to get someone through the door before the terms change. If it is not right for you, you walk away having paid nothing and owing nothing. What you see is what you’re actually offered. We would rather tell you upfront that your number is genuinely yours, built from your own situation, not a rate borrowed from someone else’s best case.<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, it can move either way, it’ll be reassessed against your situation each time you borrow, not locked in from your first loan, however there is no guarantee that you will get a better rate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Priya got in touch to ask about her rate, we told her more or less what is written above. She had borrowed once before and paid it back without a hiccup, and that history counted for something the second time around. Not a favour, not a discount she had to ask for. Just what the numbers looked like once they were actually about her.<\/span><\/p>\n She still had the car repaired before the weekend. That part never changes. What changes is what happens in between applying and getting your answer, and increasingly, that gap is starting to work in favour of the people who have earned it.<\/span><\/p>\nWhy doesn’t everyone get the same interest rate?<\/b><\/h2>\n
What actually affects my rate?<\/b><\/h2>\n
What if this is my first loan, or my situation isn’t perfect?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Is this just a good rate nobody actually gets?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Will my rate change if I borrow from Fundo again?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Curious what yours would look like?<\/b><\/h2>\n