Business Loans for Equipment

Repair, replace, or step up

Equipment borrowing comes in three flavours, and it pays to know which one you're in. Emergency repair or replacement: the oven, hoist or excavator that just died and is costing you work every day it's down. Planned replacement: gear that still runs but eats servicing money and slows the crew. Growth equipment: the machine that lets you take the work you currently turn away. All three are fundable — they differ in urgency, and in how much time you have to compare your options properly.

Unsecured loan or asset finance? An honest comparison

Two different tools exist for funding equipment, and you'll choose better knowing both. Asset finance — a chattel mortgage or lease — secures the borrowing against the equipment itself. It generally suits big-ticket, long-life, readily resaleable assets like trucks and major plant, and because the lender holds security it is often priced lower. The trade-offs: the financier has to approve the specific asset, second-hand and private-sale gear can be harder to fund, and the equipment stays encumbered until the finance is paid out.

An unsecured business loan works the other way around: the assessment is about your trading revenue, not the asset. Nothing is pledged, so the gear is yours outright from day one, and the funds can cover the whole job — machine, freight, installation, electrical work, training — not just the invoice price. It typically costs more than secured asset finance because the lender carries more risk, and a director's guarantee may still apply.

To be straight about where we sit: Smoko Finance arranges the unsecured path only. If a chattel mortgage on a new prime mover is clearly your best move, an asset-finance broker or your bank is the right door to knock on — this comparison exists so you can tell the difference before you commit either way. For the security question in general, read unsecured vs secured business loans.

Price the downtime, not just the machine

Broken equipment has two costs, and the invoice is usually the smaller one. A joinery shop with its CNC router down doesn't just face a repair bill — every quoted job slips, and slipped jobs have a habit of finding another workshop. Run the arithmetic in dollars: if a machine produces, say, $3,000 of completed work a week, a month of downtime dwarfs most repair quotes, and often the cost of replacing the thing this week instead of next quarter. That arithmetic — not the sticker price — is what tells tradies, workshops and kitchens whether fast unsecured funding is worth its cost. The same arithmetic runs hardest in civil and earthmoving, where a stopped machine also stops a crew — covered in plant repairs and downtime.

What to have ready

Equipment lending rewards specifics. Hospitality operators buying espresso machines, combi ovens or coolrooms will find the install-cost detail in our café equipment funding guide. Whatever the trade, bring:

• The supplier or dealer quote — including freight, installation and any electrical or site work, so you borrow once instead of twice.
• New or second-hand details — for used gear, the listing, auction details or private-sale agreement.
• A downtime note if gear is broken — what the machine produces and what stopping costs, so the urgency makes sense to a lender.
• Recent business bank statements or secure read-only bank data.
• Active ABN and director ID, plus a note of any existing equipment finance or other commitments.

The complete picture of what lenders ask for — and what they rarely need — is on documents required.

How the process runs

Enquire online in about two minutes — free, and not an application for credit. A specialist calls back, usually within one business day, and matches the enquiry with lenders suited to your revenue and the purchase. Amounts up to $200,000 are available, subject to eligibility, assessment and lender approval, and same-day funding may be available for eligible approved applications after acceptance, subject to verification and banking cut-off times — a real consideration when the machine that pays the wages is sitting dark. Equipment is one need among several: the funding by business need hub maps the rest.