What to know about car loans
A car loan is meant for buying a new or used car. It can be unsecured (like a personal loan) or secured with the car, in which case the interest is usually lower.
Compare the APR, the required down payment and the loan term. Some offers include mandatory comprehensive (CASCO) insurance for the loan duration.
- ✓For a new or used car
- ✓Amounts from 10,000 to 250,000 lei
- ✓Terms up to 8 years
- ✓Lower rates on secured loans
Car loan vs leasing: ownership, CASCO, and new vs used
Before comparing car-loan offers, decide between two paths: a classic loan, where you own the car from day one (the title is in your name, possibly with a „pledged to bank X” note), or financial leasing, where the leasing firm legally owns the car until the last instalment. The practical difference is large: with a loan you can sell the car with the bank's agreement, with leasing you cannot — and changing the continuation option is procedurally harder. For consumers, the car loan is the usual choice; leasing makes sense mostly for companies for tax reasons.
Comprehensive (CASCO) insurance is nearly always mandatory on car loans, no matter the bank. The reason is simple: the car is the collateral and the bank wants protection if it's stolen, destroyed, or in an accident. CASCO is added on top of the monthly payment and can reach 4-7% of the car's value per year, depending on driver age, location, and model. RCA stays mandatory by law. Credit-linked life insurance is usually optional — ask explicitly if you can remove it from the package.
For used cars, almost every bank caps the vehicle's age at loan end — typically 12 or 15 years. So for a 5-year loan, the car can be at most 7-10 years old at purchase. Down payment varies: 10-15% for new cars, 20-30% for used. Standard term is 5-7 years; above 7 it starts to be economically hard to justify — you pay interest on a car that holds less and less value.
How Kreditano compares loan offers
All offers on Kreditano are sorted by ascending APR by default — the cheapest offer appears first. According to the National Bank of Romania, this is the fairest way to compare two loans, because APR includes not just the nominal interest rate but all mandatory fees: origination fee, monthly admin fee, mandatory insurance costs, and other recurring charges.
Two lenders with the same 9% nominal rate can have very different total costs because of these fees. On Kreditano you see APR alongside the estimated monthly payment for your chosen amount and term, plus the total cost — how many lei you pay in total by the end of the loan. In practice, total cost is the most relevant indicator when deciding between two similar offers.
No lender can pay to appear higher in the list. The displayed order is algorithmic (lowest APR first) and identical for every visitor. The only exception is when we explicitly tag an offer as "sponsored" or "partnership" — in that case the label appears visibly above the card.
Real costs beyond APR
APR covers mandatory costs, but other optional or occasional costs matter too: the early-repayment fee (capped by law, but varies by lender — zero on variable-rate loans), restructuring fees if you face difficulty, contract-modification fees if you change the rate or term, and add-on services like attached credit cards or extended insurance bundles.
Life and unemployment insurance are often optional even though lenders push them as mandatory. Ask explicitly if they can be removed; if so, the APR calculated without them will be lower and the loan effectively cheaper. The National Bank of Romania requires these options to be clearly separated from mandatory costs.
For credit cards, the biggest hidden cost is the grace period: if you pay the full balance by the due date, you pay no interest. If you pay only the minimum, interest applies to the entire balance and the cost becomes significant — sometimes equivalent to an APR of 25–30%+.