car financing from arrival

[sirex]

Is it reasonable to expect to get financing to buy a car from new on arrival ? There's enough cash in the bank to pay for it cash but i'd rather get a finance loan so that money is avaliable to live on during the job hunt if needs be.

Are they going to want proof of perminant address, income via job, or both ? i.e: if we've just landed and are actively job hunting while staying in a 3 month rented place will there be a barrier to getting the loan needed for a car purchase ? My hunch is yes, but i want to check.

[Sun777]

I opened my account with Westpac in Sep'10 and by following October they approved personal loan for $10K which helped me to buy a car, we did have some spare amount in the bank account during in the interim period. (also note that I was working with my ex-employer within the same building as Westpac branch)

Are you coming here with a PR?

[Sidekickeh]

Hi Sun77. Were you able to do this with no credit history in NZ? Or did they use your history from somewhere else or something??

[Sun777]

Hi Sun77. Were you able to do this with no credit history in NZ? Or did they use your history from somewhere else or something??

Absolute no credit history, I remember submitting 3 months of utility bills from UK and that was it.

[Sidekickeh]

huh. thats pretty crazy. Thanks for sharing Sun. I thought thye would need some type of credit history. They must have required proof of a job though at the very least i am guessing.

[Sun777]

Hey...just realized after your reply, I did give a copy of appointment letter but not sure how much of a difference that would have made.

[James 1077]

Credit history in NZ is different to most places. Here you only have "negatives" recorded against you so, when they run a search, if they find nothing then it means you have a top credit rating. This means, as a new immigrant, your credit rating will be good rather than having to build it up over time.

They will most likely require proof of income and address though I would imagine - but may depend on how much you were planning on borrowing.

[edw123]

I got car finance, but you need a job - 6 weeks after arriving for 20K on a BMW. Although bear in mind cars are expensive here for what they are, and most japanese imports are plastic rubbish with large, inefficient engines (see Nissan Maxima as example...)

[Sun777]

most japanese imports are plastic rubbish with large, inefficient engines (see Nissan Maxima as example...)

For the price these cars are sold, I'd say they are worth it (just based on the cars I have come across).

[edw123]

Depends where you are from.

Looking at prices compared to the UK, I'm not so sure. Crappy plastic Mazda things from 2003 are 10K, whereas those are 2K UK cars....