Apply for Hardship
Westpac can provide assistance for those who need help arising from situations such as losing a job, a medical condition, a relationship break-up, or a death in the family. If you qualify for financial hardship assistance there are a number of ways we may be able to help, including reducing repayment amounts for a period of time, restructuring your loan, or allowing a payment holiday. In certain circumstances we may also be able to offer alternative financial help to customers who do not qualify for financial hardship assistance. Our Financial Solutions team can talk you through the options available.
As part of the process we may need to ask for your credit report from a credit bureau, and report back to them that you've received financial hardship assistance from us. We don't report to them how many days that your payments may be overdue, your credit report will only show that you have been receiving hardship assistance.
If you proceed with and are approved for financial hardship assistance, your assistance will be considered during any future credit applications with us or other lenders and may affect your ability to get credit.
Another important factor to consider with some types of financial assistance is that you may pay more in interest over the term of your loan. This means that the total amount you owe on your loan may increase, due to the hardship assistance. Also, if you are approved for any type of financial assistance, your account will move into financial support at the end of your assistance period. During financial support, your account will be monitored for a minimum of 6 months to ensure that you are financially prepared to meet your repayments moving forward. If you'd like to find out more about financial support, please get in touch with our Financial Solutions team.
To complete an application for hardship assistance you will need to provide information about your financial situation, including details about your income, expenses, assets and debt repayments.
Tom was fighting cancer, Emma had recently separated, Pete's wife had passed away, and Stu was recovering from a serious accident. They all didn't know how they would be able make their repayments, so they talked to us.
