FINANCIAL HARDSHIP
WHAT IS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY?
If you’re in financial difficulty and are struggling to pay your loans, we can help.
If you’re finding things tough, please reach out to us as soon as you can.
If you’re struggling to pay your loans you may be in financial difficulty. This can be caused by things such as:
COVID-19
Injury or Illness
losing your job or working fewer hours
reduced business income
relationship breakdowns, domestic violence or financial abuse
natural disasters
gambling.
DIFFICULTY MAKING BUSINESS LOANS REPAYMENTS
Find out what support options are available to your business.
Talking to us is the first step in managing business financial difficulties. To help us understand your circumstances, when you contact us we may ask you to provide your most recent financial information and other business details.
If your business is going through financial difficulty, get in touch with us as soon as you can. We will:
work with you to understand your circumstances
treat you and your business respectfully, fairly and individually
be open and clear about your options
consider ways we can help you find a way to continue with your business loans
consider any requests you make
be timely and proactive in our communications with you.
The type of help we offer will depend on your circumstances. Ways we can assist may include:
offering temporary relief from existing financial commitments
exploring business loan restructuring options
having frank and supportive conversations about your business and any changes you might be considering
giving you extra time to raise money to cover debt, through selling assets or by other means.
BUSINESS LOAN SUPPORT
Learn how we support businesses that are struggling with loan repayments.
If your business is in financial difficulty and is struggling to make payments on a Medfin business loan, we may be able to help.
We are here to help
It’s important that you get in touch as soon as you can, so we can quickly find the best option for you. The type of support we offer will be tailored to your situation, so a conversation is the best place to start.
If you think you might miss a payment and would like to talk to someone about your options, please call Medfin Customer Support on 1300 728 718 (available on regular business days, 8:30am – 5: 30pm, NSW EST)
HOW TO APPLY FOR FINANCIAL HARDSHIP ASSISTANCE
There are several ways to apply:
Contact your local Relationship Manager
Once you’ve completed the form return it to your local Relationship Manager,
or Email to Medfin Customer support
Call Customer Support
Call Medfin Customer Support on 1300 728 718 (available during standard NSW business days, 8:30 – 5:30 EST )
or Email us at Medfin Customer Support
COMPREHENSIVE CREDIT REPORTING
Recent changes were made to the laws relating to the Australian credit reporting system. If you want to know more details about each of these changes, visit our Comprehensive Credit Reporting Page for more information.
INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVICE
Besides speaking with Medfin, you can get independent advice about what’s best for your business and how to manage any debt.
This can help put you in the best position to find a solution that works for you.
To speak to a financial counsellor who provides free, independent, confidential information and advice visit: http://www.ndh.org.au/ or call 1800 007 007.
You can also contact the Australian Tax Office for support. If you prefer, you can consult a financial counsellor of your choice.
SUPPORT OPTIONS IF YOU'RE STRUGGLING TO MAKE PERSONAL LOAN PAYMENTS
If you’re having trouble making your personal loan payments, we want to work with you to find a solution.
It can feel overwhelming, but financial difficulty can be managed.
It’s important that you contact us as soon as you begin to struggle so we can discuss your options. We will:
treat every customer fairly and individually
show understanding that these repayments are not your only bills
be open and clear about your options
work to get you to the other side in the best possible position.
Having a discussion with us won’t affect your credit rating or credit score. Ways we can help you include:
providing you with a temporary reduced payment arrangement
giving you a temporary payment break.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does hardship support work?
We’ll work out hardship support that is individual to you, taking account of the information you are providing in this application, including the period you need the assistance for and whether or not you can make any payments to your loan during that period. In some cases, hardship support may not be appropriate, and we may need to talk to you about other options.
The Hardship support will usually take the form of either a payment break or a payment arrangement.
A payment break means that you won’t receive calls from us during the payment break period (unless you have agreed to us checking in with you).
A payment arrangement means you won’t receive calls from us (unless you have agreed to us checking in with you) and will make a lower regular payment that you have nominated during the payment arrangement period.
While you’re on a payment arrangement or a payment break, your contracted repayments, interest and fees (excluding late payment fees) continue to be payable. Unless you catch up with all your outstanding amount, your account will continue to be overdue.
Will this vary my contract?
This application for hardship support is not an application for the variation of your credit contract nor will any hardship support provided be a formal hardship variation for the purposes of the National Credit Code. There will be no change to the way interest is calculated, or to the contracted repayments that you are obliged to make. If you are in arrears, unless you catch up all your outstanding amount, your account will continue to be overdue.
Hardship support doesn’t waive any rights we have to collect the debt you owe us and doesn’t override the terms of your contact or any default notices or other legal notices we may have sent you. If you have agreed to hardship support during a default notice period, we will postpone taking any action under our default notice just so long as you catch up on the outstanding amounts at the end of the hardship support period. If you fail to catch up on your overdue amounts at the end of the hardship support period, we are not required to re-issue legal notices before continuing collections activity on the account after the end of the hardship support period.
What are the next steps?
What are the next steps?
Once you have submitted your application for Financial Assistance we’ll send you an email to confirm we have received it. We’ll be in touch with you again to either confirm you have Financial Assistance or to discuss other options if they seem more appropriate.
How will your credit file with credit reporting bodies be impacted?
If you have any default on your account, we aren’t permitted to report it to a credit reporting body until we have sent you notices required by the Privacy Act relating to the default and have given you a particular time to see if you can remedy the default.
If we had sent you the relevant notices before the hardship support period, we’ll report the default after the hardship support period ends (provided the minimum notice period has passed) unless you remedy it.
If we hadn’t sent you the notices before the hardship support period, we’ll send them to you after the hardship support ends and then report the default once the notice period expires unless you remedy the default.
Information about your defaults that we report to credit reporting bodies can be accessed by credit providers to assess your credit worthiness, for instance when you apply for further credit.
What is Repayment History Information (RHI)?
RHI only applies if you’re an individual and indicates whether due payments have been made in a particular month for any credit contracts you have. We provide this information to each of the credit reporting bodies we work with (Equifax, Experian and illion) monthly. Credit providers might access the information to assess your creditworthiness if you’re applying for more credit.
If you’re approved for a period of Hardship Support, during the support period, we will not report RHI about your account to the credit reporting bodies.
What do you report on my credit file during this hardship support?
For each month of your hardship support, Medfin will report to credit reporting bodies:
- A Financial Hardship Arrangement flag to indicate the arrangement is in place; and
- Financial Hardship Information (FHI), indicating that you’re meeting the terms of the arrangement.
When your Hardship Support period ends, we will resume reporting RHI to the credit reporting bodies. When RHI reporting resumes, it will take account of all unpaid contractual repayments, including those repayments that you didn’t pay in full during the Hardship Support period.
If your account is overdue at the end of your hardship support period, this will be reflected in your RHI within 14 days of your support ending, unless we have agreed to provide further support. The RHI provided to credit reporting bodies will reflect how many months overdue the account is. RHI reporting will remain on your credit file for 24 months and FHI will remain for 12 months, credit providers might access the information to assess future lending applications.
How can I check my credit file with the credit reporting bodies?
If you want to check your file with the credit reporting bodies we deal with, you visit their websites:
You can also get more information about comprehensive credit reporting from Credit Smart.