Loans from R120 000 to R300 000
Covers R120 000 up to R300 000. Above R300 000, unsecured credit is rarely the right route — see the note below.
A loan this size is a decision about the next five to seven years of your income, not about this month. The lenders that lend it are a short list, the terms run longer than anything below, and the total you repay is often close to double the cash you receive.
Every estimate here uses 28,00% a year — the ceiling the National Credit Act sets for unsecured credit, which is the repo rate of 7,00% plus 21,00%. Fees are never folded into the instalment. The initiation fee is shown once and the R69 monthly service fee gets its own line. Your actual rate is set by the lender after a credit and affordability assessment, and is usually lower than the legal maximum.
Two things on this page you will not get from a bank's own calculator. The point where the law starts treating your loan differently, which is R250 000. And a straight answer about where unsecured borrowing stops making sense.
Before you go further
What is this for?
At this size the purpose of the money changes which lender fits and how hard your application is assessed. Pick the one that matches your situation before you fill in anything.
One free form, checked against NCR-registered lending partners. No upfront fees. Approval depends on affordability and lender checks, and there is no obligation to accept any offer.
What the monthly payment looks like at each amount
Every figure is the estimated monthly payment at 28,00% a year, including the R69 service fee, with the initiation fee added to the balance. Credit-life cover is charged on top.
| Amount | 60 months | 72 months | 84 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| R120 000 | R3 843 | R3 561 | R3 373 |
| R150 000 | R4 777 | R4 425 | R4 191 |
| R180 000 | R5 711 | R5 289 | R5 009 |
| R200 000 | R6 334 | R5 865 | R5 554 |
| R220 000 | R6 956 | R6 441 | R6 099 |
| R250 000 | R7 891 | R7 305 | R6 917 |
| R300 000 | R9 447 | R8 746 | R8 280 |
Not every lender will offer you the right-hand column. Of the lenders that advertise this far up, only some go to 84 months — several stop at 72, and one stops at 60. The term ceiling is a lender-by-lender limit, so the cheapest-looking monthly figure may simply not be on the table at the lender who says yes.
A lender's own calculator usually shows one number and calls it your repayment. Ours shows the ceiling rate rather than a marketing rate, keeps the initiation fee and the service fee visible as separate lines, and publishes the full working at the bottom of this page so you can check it against any quote you are given. These are estimates, not offers, quotes or approvals.
What each amount costs, from R120 000 to R300 000
Each amount below is worked over 72 months at 28,00% a year, which is the middle of the three terms most lenders offer at this size. The monthly figure includes the R69 service fee.
The initiation fee is R1 208 on every amount on this page, because it hits its rand cap long before six figures. That makes it the least interesting number here. The term is what moves the money — a year either way changes the total by tens of thousands of rand, which is why each block below is worth reading before you pick one.
R120 000 loan
R120 000 is the first amount on this page, and it is where the shape of the market changes rather than the law. Nothing in the rules is different from R119 999 — if you are looking a little lower, see loans above R50 000 and under R120 000 — but the lenders that reach this far are the banks and the large personal-loan houses, and the terms they offer run longer.
Over 72 months at the legal maximum rate the estimated payment is R3 561 a month, and the total repaid is R256 363. Put differently, the interest and fees come to R136 363 — more than the cash you asked for. That ratio is the thing to sit with before you go further up this page.
R200 000 loan
A R200 000 loan over 72 months at the legal maximum rate is an estimated R5 865 a month, including the R69 service fee. Over the full term that is R422 290 repaid, of which R222 290 is interest and fees.
The term choice moves real money here. The same loan is R6 334 a month over 60 months and R5 554 over 84 — a difference of R780 a month between the shortest and longest terms on offer.
This is the amount our published working uses from start to finish, so you can check every step against a quote you have been given.
R220 000 loan
At R220 000 over 72 months the estimated payment is R6 441 a month and the total repaid is R463 772.
This is the last amount on the page that is still comfortably an intermediate agreement under the National Credit Act, which matters for one specific reason. Settle it early and the lender may charge you the balance, the interest and the fees up to that date, and nothing else. A few thousand rand higher and that stops being guaranteed.
If you are choosing between this and R250 000, the settlement rule is worth putting on the list alongside the instalment.
R250 000 loan
R250 000 is the only amount on this ladder where a number changes your legal position rather than just your budget. At or above a principal debt of R250 000 the loan is a large agreement, and a large agreement is the only kind where the lender may add an early-termination charge if you settle before the end of the term.
Over 72 months the estimated payment is R7 305 a month and the total repaid is R525 995. It is also the point where Old Mutual Finance's advertised maximum runs out, so the list of lenders open to you gets shorter at exactly the amount where the paperwork gets heavier.
Ask two questions before signing at this level. What would it cost me to settle early, and does giving notice remove that charge?
R300 000 loan
R300 000 over 72 months is an estimated R8 746 a month, R629 699 repaid in total, and R329 699 of that is interest and fees. You repay more than twice what you borrow, which is what the legal maximum rate does over six years on an unsecured balance.
This is the top of what we cover, and it is close to the practical top of unsecured lending. A few lenders publish higher maximums, but the number of incomes that can carry an instalment of this size for six or seven years is small.
Before you take R300 000 unsecured, it is worth asking whether the thing you are funding could be secured instead, or split, or delayed. Those questions are cheaper to ask now than to answer in year three.
Sixty, 72 or 84 months changes more than the instalment
Below R120 000 the choice of term is mostly about comfort. Here it decides how much of your working life the loan takes up, and what it costs you in total. Take R250 000 at each of the three terms lenders actually advertise.
| Term | Monthly | Total repaid | Interest and fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 months | R7 891 | R473 433 | R223 433 |
| 72 months | R7 305 | R525 995 | R275 995 |
| 84 months | R6 917 | R581 035 | R331 035 |
Going from 60 to 84 months takes R974 a month off the payment. It also adds R107 602 to what you repay. Both are true at the same time, and only the first one usually gets mentioned.
There is a second cost to the long term that no table shows. Seven years is long enough for a job to change, a household to grow, or a car to need replacing — and every one of those events lands on top of an instalment you are still paying. The useful test is not whether you can pay it now. It is whether you could still pay it in a bad month three years from now.
Our estimates stop at 84 months because that is the longest term any lender in our table advertises for an unsecured personal loan.
What changes when the loan reaches R250 000
There is a line in the National Credit Act that runs straight through this page, and almost nobody points at it.
The Act sorts every credit agreement into three sizes. A loan with a principal debt at or above R250 000 is a large agreement. Below that, and above R15 000, it is an intermediate agreement. Those thresholds were set by the Determination of Thresholds published in Government Gazette 28893 on 1 June 2006 and, as far as we can find, have not been changed since.
One right changes at that line, and it is the one that costs money. Under section 125 you may settle any credit agreement at any time, with or without notice. The settlement amount is the unpaid balance plus interest, fees and charges up to the settlement date — and for a small or intermediate agreement that is the whole list. Only a large agreement may carry an early-termination charge on top. That charge is capped at no more than the interest that would have run for three months, less any notice of settlement you give. Give three months' notice and the cap falls to nothing.
Two practical points follow.
The test is the principal debt, not the cash you receive. Where the initiation fee is added to the loan rather than deducted from the payout, a loan of a little under R250 000 in cash can still sit above the line. Ask the lender which side of it your agreement falls on, and get the answer in writing.
A ceiling is not a fee. The Act says "no more than" — it does not set the amount. Ask what the lender would actually charge to settle early, before you sign, and ask whether giving notice removes it.
One more thing changes on a large agreement, and it works in your favour. Credit-life premiums on smaller agreements must be paid monthly. On a large agreement they may be paid annually instead — and if you settle the loan early, you are entitled to a refund of the unused part of that final year's premium.
Why searching this amount returns home-loan pages
Type "what salary do I need for a R200 000 loan" into Google and much of what comes back is about bonds. That is not a mistake in the results. Search engines read six-figure borrowing as secured territory, because for most South Africans a number that size is attached to a house or a car.
The two kinds of credit are priced by different rules, and the gap is large.
| Unsecured personal loan | Mortgage agreement | |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum interest rate | repo + 21,00%, so 28,00% a year today | repo + 12,00%, so 19,00% a year today |
| Maximum initiation fee | R165 plus 10 per cent of the amount above R1 000, capped at R1 050 excluding VAT | R1 100 plus 10 per cent of the amount above R10 000, capped at R5 250 excluding VAT |
| What backs the loan | nothing — your income and credit record only | the property, which the lender can take if you default |
So secured credit is cheaper per rand borrowed, and that is exactly why it is cheaper. The lender's risk is lower because there is something to take back. That is also the reason it is not automatically the better choice — a missed payment on an unsecured loan is a debt problem, while a missed payment on a bond or a vehicle agreement puts the house or the car at risk.
BetterLoans introduces borrowers to lenders for unsecured personal loans. We do not arrange home loans or vehicle finance and we are not positioned to advise you on either. If the money is for a property or a vehicle, speak to a bank or a registered finance broker about a secured product before you sign anything unsecured — you are the only person who can weigh a lower rate against putting the asset up as security.
Where unsecured credit stops
This page ends at R300 000, and the ending is not arbitrary.
A handful of lenders advertise above it — African Bank publishes R500 000, Nedbank R400 000 — so larger unsecured loans do exist. What thins out is the number of people whose income can carry one. R300 000 over 84 months at the legal maximum rate is R8 280 a month, every month, for seven years, and the interest and fees on it come to R395 530. An affordability assessment has to find room for that inside whatever is left of your income once everything else you already pay has come off.
Past roughly R300 000, the honest answer is usually that unsecured credit is the wrong tool. Secured credit exists at that level, it is priced lower, and it is the route most large borrowing actually takes. No comparison site says this because it costs them a click. We would rather you knew.
If the amount you need is above R300 000 and there is no asset behind it, the more useful question is not which lender will stretch that far. It is whether the plan can be split, delayed, or funded another way — and whether an instalment that size leaves you anything to live on.
We do not currently have a page for amounts above R300 000, and we would rather leave the gap honest than fill it with an application form.
Which lenders go this high, and how high
The list is short. Below R50 000 you have mid-tier, mass-market non-bank options; from R120 000 the field is the big banks and the large personal-loan houses. Several of those houses are not banks, but they assess an application much the way a bank does — full credit-bureau check, full affordability assessment under Regulation 23A, bank statements and payslips.
One advertised maximum falls inside this page rather than above it, and that is the whole delta at this level. Old Mutual Finance stops at R250 000. Ask for more and it is off your list, even though it lends across everything below.
At exactly R300 000 you reach the advertised ceiling of Standard Bank and RCS as well. Above that, only a few names remain — which is the supply-side version of the point made in the section above.
If you have been declined before, the record is what a lender at this size will look at hardest and first. Read what lenders look at when your credit record is damaged before you apply again, because a second decline costs you another entry on your bureau file.
The table below shows only what changes at this level. The full row-by-row comparison lives once, on the full personal loan comparison table.
| Lender | Maximum advertised | Term ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Old Mutual Finance | R250 000 — the one cap that falls inside this page | 72 months |
| Standard Bank | R300 000 | 72 months |
| RCS | R300 000 | 60 months |
| Absa | R350 000 | 84 months |
| Sanlam | R350 000 | 84 months |
| DirectAxis | R350 000 | 72 months, and never shorter than 24 |
| Nedbank | R400 000 | 84 months |
| African Bank | R500 000 | 72 months |
Lender list checked 2 August 2026. Maximums are what each lender advertises, not what you will be offered — the amount approved depends on affordability and lender checks.
Read the table for the term ceiling, not just the maximum. Every lender here reaches at least R250 000, so the column that changes your monthly payment is the right-hand one. RCS stops at 60 months, which makes the same loan noticeably more expensive per month than it would be at a lender advertising 84.
Also lending at this size, but left out of the table. WesBank CashPower advertises R5 000 to R350 000 over 24 to 72 months and lends under FirstRand Bank Limited's registration, NCRCP20 — the same registration DirectAxis uses, which is why we show it separately rather than as a ninth row. Letsatsi Finance publishes no maximum at all for its longer-term loan, only "from R3 000 upwards", so we show ____ rather than invent a ceiling.
Two lenders left out on purpose. Capitec and FNB both advertise maximums above this band, but neither publishes a minimum loan amount, so under our own publication rule they stay out of the availability table. Minimum not published — ask the lender: Capitec ____, FNB ____.
A calm word about borrowing this much
The feeling that brings most people to this page is not urgency. It is worry about whether the number is even realistic.
Here is the bar, plainly. Approval turns on what is left of your income once tax, a prescribed living-expense allowance and every debt repayment on your bureau record have been taken off. An instalment this size has to sit inside that leftover comfortably, not exactly — and at R200 000 over 72 months the instalment is an estimated R5 865 a month, for six years. That is a high bar for most households, and it is meant to be. The rule that makes a loan this size hard to get is the same rule that stops lenders handing out instalments people cannot carry.
South Africa has no legal debt-to-income limit. Some lenders work to their own internal guideline bands, but those are lender guidelines, not law, and they differ from one lender to the next.
Being offered less than you asked for is a normal outcome at this size, not a verdict on you. So is being told the term must be longer than you wanted. Both are worth taking seriously as information about what your budget can actually hold.
If the reason for the loan is debts you already have, run the numbers before you commit. Combining accounts can lower what you pay each month while raising what you repay in total, and over a 72 or 84-month term that gap gets wide. Read how consolidation actually adds up over a long term first. Consolidation is not automatically the cheaper choice, and at this size the difference is measured in six figures.
And if the honest answer is that no instalment on this page fits, that is worth knowing now rather than after a declined application. Debt counselling is a real option and it does not cost you an application.
Compare the lenders that lend at this level
Only a small group of lenders advertises R120 000 and up, and they differ mainly on two things — how high they go, and how long they will let you take. Both sit on one table with each lender's NCR registration number, alongside every other personal-loan provider we track.
See the full personal loan comparison
Our lending partners are registered with the National Credit Regulator. BetterLoans is an introducer, not the lender. No upfront fees. Approval depends on affordability and lender checks, and there is no obligation to accept any offer.
How we work these figures out
How we work this out
Every rand figure on this page comes from one published method, and the same method is used on every one of our loan-amount pages. All rand figures include VAT at 15,00%.
- The rate. We use 28,00% a year, the legal maximum on an unsecured loan — the repo rate of 7,00% plus 21,00%. It is a ceiling, not a quote. Your actual rate is set by the lender after a credit and affordability assessment, and is usually lower than the legal maximum.
- The initiation fee. R165, plus "10 per cent of the amount in excess of R1 000", capped at R1 050 — all three excluding VAT — and never more than 15,00% of the principal debt. Every amount on this page is far past the cap, so the fee is R1 050 excluding VAT, which is R1 207,50 including VAT. Reading the caps as VAT-exclusive is National Credit Regulator guidance and standard market practice, not the wording of the regulation itself.
- The fee is financed. We assume the initiation fee is added to what you owe rather than deducted from the cash you receive, so interest is charged on the loan plus the fee. Some lenders deduct it instead — that is a lender-by-lender choice, and it changes the figures slightly. It also affects which side of the R250 000 large-agreement line your principal debt falls on.
- The service fee. R60 excluding VAT, which is R69 including VAT, charged every month of the term. It is not part of the interest-bearing balance, so we always show it as its own line.
- Credit life is excluded. Credit-life cover is commonly required on unsecured credit and is charged in addition to these figures. Ask each lender what it costs.
- Rounding. The arithmetic is carried at full precision and only the displayed figures are rounded, to the nearest rand. Where a total does not divide evenly by the term, the final instalment absorbs the remainder.
The full working, R200 000 over 72 months
| Step | Working | Exact | Shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash advanced | given | R200 000,00 | R200 000 |
| Initiation fee, excluding VAT | capped | R1 050,00 | R1 050 |
| Initiation fee, including VAT | R1 050,00 × 1,15 | R1 207,50 | R1 208 |
| Opening balance | R200 000,00 + R1 207,50 | R201 207,50 | — |
| Monthly rate | 28,00% ÷ 12 | 0,0233333333… | 2,333333% |
| Instalment, capital and interest | R201 207,50 × i ÷ (1 − (1 + i)⁻⁷²) | R5 796,143727 | shown only inside the monthly payment below |
| Service fee | per month | R69,00 | R69 |
| Total monthly payment | R5 796,143727 + R69,00 | R5 865,143727 | R5 865 |
| Total repaid over 72 months | R5 865,143727 × 72 | R422 290,348 | R422 290 |
| Interest and fees | R422 290,348 − R200 000,00 | R222 290,348 | R222 290 |
| Credit life | excluded — charged in addition | — | — |
These are estimates, not offers, quotes or approvals. Figures checked 2 August 2026.
Questions people ask about this range
What does a R200 000 loan cost each month?
Worked at 28,00% a year, the legal maximum on an unsecured loan, a R200 000 loan over 72 months is an estimated R5 865 a month including the R69 service fee. Over the full term that comes to R422 290 repaid, of which R222 290 is interest and fees. Shorten it to 60 months and the payment is R6 334; stretch it to 84 and it is R5 554. These are estimates at the ceiling rate, not offers — your actual rate is set after a credit and affordability assessment and is usually lower.
Why does searching for a R200 000 loan return home-loan pages?
Because search engines read six-figure borrowing as secured territory — at that size most South African credit is a bond or vehicle finance. The two are priced by different rules. An unsecured personal loan is capped at repo plus 21,00%, which is 28,00% a year today. A mortgage agreement is capped at repo plus 12,00%, which is 19,00%. Secured credit is cheaper because the lender can take the asset if you default, which is also the reason it is not automatically the safer choice. BetterLoans introduces borrowers for unsecured personal loans only — we do not arrange home loans or vehicle finance.
Is there a penalty for settling a R250 000 loan early?
There can be, and this is the one thing that changes inside this page. A credit agreement with a principal debt at or above R250 000 is a large agreement under the National Credit Act, and a large agreement is the only kind where the lender may add an early-termination charge to your settlement amount. The charge is capped at no more than the interest that would have run for three months, less any notice of settlement you give — so three months' notice brings the cap down to nothing. It is a ceiling, not a set fee, so ask the lender in writing what it would actually charge. Below R250 000 the charge is not permitted at all.
Can I borrow R300 000 without putting up security?
Unsecured loans of R300 000 do exist — several lenders advertise maximums at or above it, and a few publish higher. What limits it is affordability, not availability. R300 000 over 84 months at the ceiling rate is R8 280 a month for seven years, and that instalment has to fit inside your discretionary income after tax, living expenses and every existing debt repayment on your credit record. Above roughly R300 000 the realistic route is usually secured credit instead. Approval depends on affordability and lender checks.
Does stretching a R250 000 loan to 84 months make it cheaper?
Cheaper each month, more expensive in total. Over 60 months R250 000 is an estimated R7 891 a month and R473 433 repaid. Over 84 months it is R6 917 a month and R581 035 repaid. You save R974 a month and pay R107 602 more overall. The sensible test is the shortest term whose payment you could still meet in a difficult month, not the lowest payment you can find.
Is an unsecured loan of this size a sensible way to pay off a car or a house?
Usually not, and we are not positioned to advise you either way — that conversation belongs with a bank or a registered finance broker. What we can tell you is the pricing difference. Unsecured credit is capped at 28,00% a year while a mortgage agreement is capped at 19,00%, and the initiation fee caps differ too. Moving a secured debt onto an unsecured loan generally raises the rate you pay, even though it releases the asset. Moving the other way lowers the rate but puts the asset at risk if you fall behind. Get the numbers for both in writing before you decide.
One free form. No upfront fees, and no obligation to accept any offer.