Financial difficulty assistance

We understand there may be times when your personal circumstances change. You may experience an unexpected event or changes outside of your control like losing your job, suffering an illness or injury, being affected by a natural disaster, or a downturn in your business.

As a result, if you can’t afford the minimum repayment on your loan or credit card, and would like us to consider if we can provide financial difficulty assistance, please contact us immediately. The sooner you contact us the sooner we can try to help you.

In many instances help can be provided quickly and efficiently over the phone.

Otherwise we may need to do a more detailed assessment of your personal and financial circumstances to identify how we might be able to help.

Financial difficulty assistance is available to you, whether you are an individual, joint account holder, guarantor or small business customer. If you have a joint account and are experiencing financial difficulty, we can assist you individually if you request it.

Apply for assistance

If you would like to apply for assistance, please contact:

Mortgage Help Centre
Phone: 1800 652 146
Email: Mortgage Help Centre
Post: PO Box 480, Bendigo, Vic, 3552

Assistance options

This will depend on your personal circumstances and financial situation, and may include:

Tailoring a payment arrangement;
Deferring or reducing loan payments for a defined period of time;
Extending the loan term;
Capitalising loan arrears;
Product conversion;
Debt consolidation;
Interest only period.

It is important to contact us early so that we can discuss your situation and provide the best options available to you.

Loan deferral

We’re committed to supporting our customers through challenging times as much as we possibly can, which may include loan deferrals.

This video explains the impact of possible changes to your repayments as part of a loan deferral.

Animated video explaining your loan deferral options

We understand there may be times when your personal circumstances change. We’re committed to assisting you and providing you with as much helpful information as possible. If you’re eligible for financial assistance, it’s really important to understand how it will work.

If you’re experiencing financial difficulties, you may be able to get Home Loan Repayment Relief. If you do, please keep in mind that interest will keep accruing to your loan and will need to be repaid. This is referred to as Interest Capitalisation. Your repayments will continue to accrue as well. What this means is that if you’ll get assistance from us, you may end up paying more interest over the course of your loan.

To make this clearer, it’ll be helpful to look at the example of three people. Harry, Charlotte and Jarrad all have a separate principal and interest loan. They have the same loan amount of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the same variable interest rate of three point four nine percent per annum, have twenty five years remaining on their loans and they pay the same monthly loan repayment of one thousand seven hundred and fifty one dollars. They have all considered their own circumstances carefully and chosen to access assistance and defer their repayments for six months.

At the end of the six month period, Harry chooses to extend his loan term by six months. This means his loan term is now twenty five years and six months. He’ll have more time to pay off his loan but will pay more interest over the life of the loan. Because interest is being charged on the loan for a longer period, his new repayment may be higher too. So in his situation once repayments restart after the deferral period the repayment amount will increase to one thousand seven hundred and eighty two dollars per month. This will mean Harry could end up paying approximately paying nine thousand two hundred and thirty dollars more interest over the course of his loan compared to if he hadn’t taken up the Repayment Relief.

Charlotte choses a different option. At the end of the six month period, she elects to keep the same loan term of twenty five years. The new repayment amount will be higher because she is now paying off a higher loan balance across the same twenty five year period. In her situation, once she restarts repayments after the deferral period, the repayment amount will increase to one thousand eight hundred and four dollars per month. This will mean Charlotte could end up paying approximately five thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars more interest over the course of her loan, compared to if she hadn’t taken up the Repayment Relief.

Jarrad’s situation is different, and he decides that he can afford to start his repayments again after three months, instead of six months. Like Charlotte he chooses to keep the same loan term of twenty five years. The new repayment amount will be higher, because he is now paying off a higher loan balance across the same twenty five year period. In his situation once he restarts repayments after three months the repayment amount will increase to one thousand, seven hundred and seventy seven dollars per month. This will mean Jarrad could end up paying approximately two thousand, six hundred and twenty dollars more interest over the course of his loan, compared to if he hadn’t taken up the Repayment Relief.

These are just examples, and your situation could be different. But it will hopefully give you an idea of what the impact could be if applying for Repayment Relief.

For more information on assistance, please refer to our website at adelaidebank.com.au.

Let our online calculator help you

You may like to use our online calculator to show the effect to repayments and total interest payable as a result of deferring and/or extending the loan term.

Application process

If you think you are, or will be, unable to meet your debt obligations please contact us as soon as possible.

Depending on your situation we may be able to provide assistance quickly and efficiently over the phone.

Alternatively we may require further information and documentation to help us understand your financial position and determine whether assistance is appropriate, such as:

A statement of financial position to be completed summarising your current income, expenditure, assets and liabilities;
An employment contract and/or payslips;
Your account statements;
Centrelink statement and/or social security payment details;
A medical certificate from a qualified medical practitioner;
An employment separation statement;
A contract of sale/ sales agency agreement;
Other documents which support your request.

Once you have provided us with all the requested information necessary to review your financial situation, we will provide you with a decision within 21 days.

Assessing your application

Our dedicated team will contact you. When assessing your request they will take into account factors including:

The reason for financial difficulty;
Your current financial position;
Your ability to meet the commitments under the proposed arrangement and future repayments under the contract;
The ability to rehabilitate your circumstances (based on whether the financial difficulty assistance will offer genuine relief to restore your financial situation).

Letting you know

We will tell you in writing if we can assist you, the reason for our decision to provide assistance and the main details of the proposed new arrangements

You’ll need to ensure that you meet the terms of the new arrangement.

If you are subsequently unable to meet these terms, you should contact us as soon as possible to discuss your situation.

Will my credit report be impacted?

If your hardship assistance application is approved, a record will be displayed as Financial Hardship Information and your Repayment History Information will reflect whether repayments are made, or not, against the agreed financial hardship arrangement. Once your financial hardship arrangement concludes, we will resume reporting your repayment history information against your contractual repayment obligations.

To learn more about financial hardship assistance visit the CreditSmart website.

If your application is declined

There may be a number of reasons why we decide not to provide financial difficulty assistance. If this is the case the reason for the decision will be explained to you in writing. We’ll also seek to discuss the next steps we will take and other available options with you.

Not satisfied with the outcome?

Please contact our team who will promptly investigate your complaint and notify you the outcome.

Resolve a complaint

Other useful resources

If you are experiencing financial hardship, useful resources are available to you. These include:

The National Debt Helpline have easy to use, step-by-step guides on how to tackle debts - ndh.org.au. You can also call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 to talk to a financial counsellor for free, independent advice about your situation.
The Small Business Debt Helpline is a free financial counselling service for small business owners in financial difficulty. Visit sbdh.org.au or call 1800 413 828.
Financial Counselling Australia will help you find a financial counselling agency in your area - www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au.
ASIC’s ‘MoneySmart’ website provides information and tools to help you make the most of your money - www.moneysmart.gov.au
The ABA’s ‘Financial Hardship’ website can help know what to do if you are experiencing financial difficulties, how your bank can help, where to go for more information and how to apply for help - https://www.ausbanking.org.au/resource/resource.pdf/
The CreditSmart website has information on managing debt and hardship assistance.

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Financial difficulty assistance

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Let our online calculator help you

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