During this difficult and unprecedented time, you may be faced with some financial uncertainty. As such, we wanted to reach out to provide some resources and support regarding your finances which may help if you have been adversely affected by Covid-19. We have also provided some options for those clients who have not been impacted by Coronavirus, but still want to reduce their monthly costs.

As you may be aware, the majority of lenders have provided relief packages in conjunction with the Federal Government. More guidance on the stimulus packages can be found here. Contacting us or your lender directly should be your first step if you’re struggling to make your repayments due to unforeseen circumstances.

Currently, lenders are offering a deferral of home loan repayments for up to six months (with interest capitalised), as well as reduced fixed rates for owner occupiers paying principal & interest repayments, with some as low as 2.19%.

Note that if your income has been affected by Covid-19, consider using the loan repayment deferment as your last choice if possible. If you choose this option, the loan repayments are not required to be paid for up to 6 months, however the interest will be capitalised to your loan. This means that after the 6-month period, you will owe more than the loan balance you started at before you deferred. It is also worth noting that the Covid-19 assistance is not automatic, and your lender will ask a few questions to understand your situation and assess your eligibility.

Example: If you have a $400,000 loan at an interest rate of 3%, and choose to defer, after the 6-month deferment period, you will owe $406,000. The banks have agreed to extend the deferred loans for a further 6 months, however before choosing to defer you may want to consider some other options:

For those in business, lenders are offering the following:

As per the personal home loan section above, please consider other options in lieu of the loan repayment deferment if they are available to your business.

Three year, unsecured Business Loans of up to $250,000 for working capital purposes only (not asset purchases or refinancing of existing debt).

This offer is for new loan applications only and cannot be applied to existing loans, including top-ups or variations. Customers may only access one loan under this offering.

Small to medium sized businesses and community groups with annual turnovers less than $50 million can apply for loans under this offering. The offer is limited to one loan per customer. Not-for-profit organisations with turnover less than $50 million are also eligible. Both current business customers and new-to-bank customers are eligible.

Unfortunately, lenders will generally require you deal with them directly for any COVID-19 assistance as the client is required to acknowledge any changes to their loans regarding deferment of repayments. However, we are here to help if we can or direct you to the right bank resource. As a client, we can assist you directly with:

To assist you with contacting your lender, we have provided a list below of links to some helpful resources.

 Commonwealth Bank