Interest free loans in Australia

Do interest-free loans exist? Yes. But you need to fulfil the eligibility criteria to access an interest free personal loan. The No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) exists to provide low-income earners with the opportunity to access personal loans at zero cost, to purchase essential household goods and s

Importe préstamo 200 - 2.000 €
Plazo del préstamo 3 - 12 días
Interés TAE desde 2.00 %

Online loans up to $2 000

Importe préstamo 1.000 - 40.000 €
Plazo del préstamo 1 - 12 días
Interés TAE desde 18.24 %

Credit Card up to $40 000

Do interest-free loans exist?

Yes. But you need to fulfil the eligibility criteria to access an interest free personal loan. The No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) exists to provide low-income earners with the opportunity to access personal loans at zero cost, to purchase essential household goods and services. The initiative is run by Good Shepherd and supported by the Australian Government so it's a very safe financing option. Applicants are not subjected to a credit check and eligible recipients can borrow up to $1,500 with the repayments being spaced over an affordable period of 12 to 18 months with no interest, fees or charges.

NILS Eligibility Criteria

To access interest free loans for low income earners, you need to meet the following requirements:

  • Make less than $45,000 per annum OR Hold a Pension Card or Health Care Card
  • Lived at your current address for at least 3 months
  • Have the means to repay the personal loan

Other forms of interest-free borrowing

Credit Cards

There are a number of credit cards offering a 0% introductory rate on purchases. The interest-free period ranges up to 15 months which is effectively a 15-month interest-free loan. But be mindful of the interest-free term as a high-interest rate is applied to any unpaid portion after the interest-free period.

Most credit cards have an interest-free period of usually 44 or 55 days. This means, if you didn't have the adequate cash flow to purchase goods or services, you could pay with your credit card then pay it off when you have the funds available.

Interest-free Deals

It's not uncommon to find interest-free deals when purchasing appliances, whitegoods and even holiday packages. These interest-free deals generally work in two ways:

  • Periodic repayments–– Installments are paid periodically over the interest-free period.
  • Deferred payment–– No repayments are made until the end of the interest-free period.

It's very important to understand if your period repayments are enough to pay off the entire balance before the interest-free period ends, otherwise you could be hit with a huge amount of interest on the remaining balance at the end of the period.

Lay-by

The store holds the product for you until you've fully paid it off with periodic instalments. Lay-by doesn't allow for you to take the product home before it's completely paid for but it's a good option to lock in a sale price when you don't have the cash to purchase the product outright. There are a number of interest-free finance options to suit various needs, just be sure to read the fine print so you don't get caught out by any hidden fees and charges.


Vicente Fleites
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Yo soy Vicente Fleites – 10 años de experiencia en planificación de finanzas personales. Soy garante de la calidad informativa del español en Finaton.