THE INS AND OUTS OF IN-HOUSE CAR FINANCE AT CENTURION SELECT

You've found it: the new car to get your life on the go. But there’s one problem, you don’t have the full amount in cash on hand to pay it off in one go. That’s where vehicle finance comes in, and in particular, Centurion Select’s in-house finance team to help you find the best deal on car finance.​​

THE PROCESS

After you’ve found your dream ride, you’ll sit down with our in-house finance experts to provide them with important information, like your income, how big a deposit you have, whether you want a balloon payment or not, and how long you want to pay the car off for.

They’ll also need extra info for a credit check, which may include proof of income (a pay slip or bank statement), proof of address, and proof of employment. The bank may request additional documentation or information if they deem necessary.

After that, we’ll send out all the paperwork to the various banks we deal with (we only work with reputable, authorised financial services providers) and wait for them to confirm what finance options they’re willing to offer.

You then choose which bank’s offer you want to accept, and we do the rest, letting you drive off in your new baby. Nice and simple.​

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

When the finance offers come in, you’re going to need to know what the different terms in the offers mean:

• Deposit - This is how much money you can put down at the start. The bigger the deposit, the better.
• Balloon Payment - This is like a deposit, but paid at the end of the finance term. Avoid balloon payments if you can, as they are a recipe for disaster and quickly put you in long-term debt.
• Payment Term - This is how long you want the finance to be spread over. A longer payment term (ex. 72 months) means cheaper monthly payments, but you accrue more interest. A shorter payment term (ex. 36-60 months) is more expensive monthly but gets you out of debt sooner, and you pay less in the long run.
• Interest Rate - How much interest the bank will charge you. This varies from bank to bank and is based on your credit score. It may be linked to Prime (i.e. it can fluctuate based on the repo rate) or fixed (it stays the same the entire time). Lower is always better here but beware of a linked rate, as unforeseen circumstances can make your monthly payments more expensive.

BENEFITS OF USING CENTURION SELECT’S FINANCE TEAM

We make getting car finance easy because we do this every day for hundreds of car shoppers. We can negotiate things like interest rates with the banks on your behalf, getting you the best deal. We take into account your unique financial situation and always look out for you so that you don’t get caught unaware by hidden costs.