The total amount payable is what a loan costs from first repayment to last: the principal you borrowed, all the interest the term will generate, and the fees, including an establishment fee financed into the loan and any balloon payment at the end.
It is the one number that cannot be made to look friendlier than it is. Rates can be advertised “from” a floor that few applicants get, and repayments can be shrunk by stretching the term, but the total payable absorbs both tricks: a longer term shows up as a bigger total, and a teaser rate that applies to nobody shows up nowhere.
NZ consumer credit disclosure requires the key costs of a loan to be set out before you are bound, which is why this figure appears in your loan documents. Read it before the rate and before the repayment, and when comparing two loans, compare their totals over the same term.
The long version, with worked examples, is in our guide to total payable.