Financial Hardship FAQ

We are indeed in unprecedented times and the impact the Covid-19 Virus is having on each of us is unique and uncertain.

Along with your health, we appreciate that managing your finances is one of your main priorities during this time and FinancePath is committed to supporting all our clients that require assistance through this time.

Our lenders are also here to assist. They all have financial hardship policies for clients that find themselves in this situation.

Financial hardship is defined as difficulty in paying the repayments on your loans and debts when they are due. There are two main reasons for financial hardship at present,

1: a reduction in income or 2: a loss of employment.

However, if a financial hardship discussion with the lender is not required at this stage, there are measures that you can be put into place to assist with managing cashflow in the short term, without the need to contact the lender.

Proactive Management of your cashflow

These include:

1.    Reduce your mortgage repayments down to the minimum required.

Many of our clients have been paying above the minimum repayments required for a long period of time, particularly while interest rates have been low. Now may be the time to reduce those repayments back to the minimum repayment to provide some cashflow relief. This can be managed via your online access or by changing your nominated direct debit into your mortgage.

2.    Utilise your offset or redraw facilities.

If you have surplus available in redraw or offset, now is maybe a good time to access those funds. We recommend only utilising these funds as a last resort as we always recommend retaining some form of cash buffer where possible.

If you need support or guidance on how to best manage the above options, please don't hesitate to call on 1300 780 440 and our Relationship Management team will be more than happy to assist or refer to our FAQ's for further guidance on your options.

Financial Hardship Queries

If these options are not available to you or you have had a significant change in your employment or income circumstances, we recommend you make contact to your relevant lender to discuss your individual situation. Contact details below.

Prior to making contact with these lenders it is highly recommended you review the Money Help website, a Victorian Government supported resource that provides guidance and helpful tools that can assist you if a financial hardship request is required.

There are support tools on the right hand side of the page under "Further Information" that are useful resources.

Financial Hardship Support Website - Money Help

Equally you can review our FAQ's section as this provides useful information regarding preparing for a Financial Hardship application. It also provides a templated letter that provides guidance on what to include in your written request.

These lender contacts are to assist anyone experiencing hardship as a result of Covid-19.

Platinum clients (Advantedge):

Ph: 1300 133 053 (this does answer as collections)
E: Advantedge.Assist@advantedge.com.au

Premium clients (Adelaide Bank):

Ph: 1300 650 259
E: MortgageHelp.AdelaideMailbox@bendigoadelaide.com.au

Specialist clients (Pepper Money):

Option 1:

1300 308 738

(Call this number if you are looking at reducing repayments down to the minimum monthly instalment to give some relief if you are paying more than the minimum).

Option 2:

1800 356 383

(If you are experiencing difficulty in making loan repayments, you should get in touch on this number to talk about financial relief options available to you in a confidential manner).

Further information for Pepper clients can be found at:

https://www.pepper.com.au/lending/help-centre/customer-service/natural-disaster-financial-relief-options

Banks clients:

Please refer to your specific bank website for details regarding their Financial Hardship contact details or refer to this link for contact details: Financial Hardship Contact Banks

With all of these lenders, the sooner you contact them, the sooner the hardship teams can work on a plan to help improve your situation.

Please let our team know if you require further information or require assistance.

Contact details: 1300 780 440 or email customerservice@financepath.com.au