How Compare Loans makes money

Compare Loans refers you to a licensed broker and is paid a referral fee by the broker. You pay nothing for any part of Compare Loans.

The broker pays the fee when [CLIENT: choose one: the broker accepts a referral / a referred loan settles]. The fee does not change the interest rate or the fees a lender offers you.

Compare Loans only compares and refers. Once it passes your details on, the broker deals with you directly.

• It does not lend money, and it never holds your money.
• It does not arrange, approve or decline loans.
• It does not fill in or send loan applications.
• It does not give regulated financial advice.
• It does not compare every lender in New Zealand.
• It takes no part in the advice the broker gives you.

Recommending that you talk to a licensed broker is not financial advice about a particular loan. The broker alone is responsible for the advice you get.

Each rate table shows advertised rates and fees from a selection of New Zealand lenders, with the date the figures were last checked. A broker's panel of lenders may not include every lender either.

Every broker Compare Loans refers you to is licensed. After you send an enquiry, the confirmation message from Compare Loans tells you which broker has your details.

• Each one holds a Financial Advice Provider licence from the Financial Markets Authority, or advises for a business that holds one.
• All of them are on the Financial Service Providers Register and belong to an approved dispute resolution scheme.
• You can check any broker yourself on the Financial Service Providers Register.

Compare Loans picks the broker for your enquiry by the kind of loan you asked about and the region you live in. It does not send your enquiry to whichever broker pays the highest fee.

A New Zealand broker is usually paid a commission by the lender when a loan settles, and some brokers also charge you a fee. Every licensed broker must publish a disclosure statement that covers commissions, fees and conflicts of interest, including the referral fee they pay Compare Loans.

Ask the broker for that disclosure statement before you go ahead with any loan.

The fee gives Compare Loans a reason to encourage you to ask for a call, so it keeps that conflict of interest in check in four ways:

• It tells you about the referral fee above every enquiry form, before you send any details.
• It does not recommend a particular loan or lender to you.
• It does not tell you a loan will be approved.
• It shows you how to check any broker on the Financial Service Providers Register.

Compare Loans writes its own articles, rate tables and calculator. Brokers and lenders do not write, edit or approve any of it.

• Lenders do not pay Compare Loans to appear in a rate table.
• The order of a rate table does not depend on any payment.
• Anything a broker or lender pays for is labelled "Sponsored" at the top.