What steps should I take if I am starting to struggle financially?
First and foremost, give your Entourage broker a call. We know your financial position very well, along with all your loan details. We can help you to run the numbers, present the options that are available to you and help you make an informed decision on managing your debt.
Steps to take
- Contact your broker. Everyone’s situation is different so talk to us first to find out if there are any other options for you prior to asking your lender to defer repayments.
- We can look to see if your repayment is set to the minimum amount required. Sometimes your lender doesn’t reduce your repayments when rates drop, so you may be paying more than the minimum amount required.
- Do you have redraw or offset funds? You can use these to help with repayments during this time.
- We can look at pricing your existing loan if on variable to see if your lender can offer a better rate and therefore reduce your repayment.
- If you then still decide that you would like to defer your repayments with your lender, you can contact them directly via the links we have provided in our blog ‘Emergency Relief Packages Offered By Australian Banks‘. Please note that they will likely ask for your financial position and expenses and income, so please be prepared with this information.
Will deferring my repayments affect my credit file?
Will my loan still be approved at the moment?
A lot of clients have asked if loans are still being approved at the moment. Although we haven’t yet had any declines in our office due to this, some of the smaller lenders have come out and said that they are no longer accepting incomes from the industries that were closed down last week, So travel, hospitality, sporting clubs, pubs etc plus casual employee income. They are not looking to use any additional incomes like bonuses or commission. So based on this, we would strongly recommend anyone making offers at the moment to buy property should be including a finance clause for say 14 or 21 days. Try for 21 days if you can given the times that some of the lenders are taking at the moment. That way, if you are successful in purchasing the property but your finance is then declined for some reason, you are able to get out of the contract. Please obtain the correct wording to use on the contract from your conveyancer or solicitor around this.