We Told This 750-Credit Score Customer to WAIT
Sometimes a finance application just doesn’t fit into the usual boxes a lender is expecting, particularly if your employment situation has recently changed.
This week’s case study is a perfect example of why timing is everything, and why it is sometimes necessary to reframe a problem to a lender so a solution can be found.
Scenario
A customer from Grandchester, just outside of Ipswish, reached out to us back in February.
He was looking to finance a near-new 2021 Nissan Pathfinder for around $30,000.
At first glance, his financial profile was strong.A credit score in the mid-700s (fantastic), steady income, and limited other debts.
The Roadblock (Employment Tenure)
Despite all the positives, we hit a snag with his unique employment situation.
He had recently transitioned from being self-employed to a casual PAYG role, and he had been in this new casual job for less than two months.
Because casual employment is considered less stable than full-time work, some lenders shy away from shorter tenures.
However, once you hit three months, there are more options for a borrower.
So, our advice was to be a little patient and come back to us the moment he hit the three-month mark at his new job.
The Gusto Strategy
Like clockwork, he returned to us as soon as he crossed that three-month milestone.
Armed with his updated payslips and his strong credit score, we took his application to one of our specialist lenders.
The lender came back with a conditional approval for the full $30,000 at a highly competitive rate of 11.6%.
For a casual employee who was facing nothing but rejections a couple of weeks earlier, this was an outstanding rate!
But there was still one more hurdle to navigate to satisfy the conditions, which centred on his transition from self-employment.
Importance of Employment History
Your work history matters to a lender when you have only been in a job for a short period of time.
Continuity of employment and sticking with the same industry are both signs that your employment prospects are strong, even if you are in a casual role.
In this case, the customer had been working in his own business, so we had to evidence earnings stability another way.
Tax returns are often used, but his FY25 return was not yet completed (they are not due until May 2026 if using a tax agent).
Our alternative? We relied on the trading history of the ABN itself, which had been active since February 2024.
The Takeaway
Securing finance is not always a simple yes or no equation.
There can be multiple moving parts that require negotiation and reframing to fit in with a lender’s policies and interpretation of situations outside the norm.
You will only have influence in this process when using a broker.
So if you have a more unique situation, or have recently changed jobs, having a broker advocating on your behalf can be the difference between a rejection and an approval.