Hardship Assistance is designed to provide you with repayment relief during a period of financial hardship, with a goal to get back on track and resume your repayments.

If you’re in a situation where you’re temporarily unable to meet your credit contract obligations, seeking Hardship Assistance may help you deal with life so you can get back on track as quickly as possible. 

 Some Hardship Assistance solutions available are:

• Reducing or deferring repayments for a period of time 
• Changing the loan to Interest Only 
• Varying your loan set up in other ways

It is important to understand that entering a hardship assistance arrangement does not waive your repayment obligations, meaning you will be expected to return to normal repayments and also agree on a plan to make up the missed repayments.

It’s important to understand all of the financial consequences related to entering a hardship arrangement,such as:

• By entering a Hardship Assistance, your obligations to repay your loan are not waived.
• You’re likely to pay more over the term of the loan, particularly if you do not increase the repayment amount at any point after the hardship period ends.
• Switching your repayments to Interest Only, may result in paying more interest over the life of the loan.
• By paying interest only, you will not be paying down the balance of your loan.
• If receiving a deferral of repayments, interest continues to accrue and be applied to your loan during this time. So your loan balance will increase during this period.
• Lenders are required to report hardship arrangements to the credit bureaus. This information will appear on your credit report and is visible to other lenders. This may impact your ability to borrow money in the future.

We look at every application individually and with care. There may be instances where an application for Hardship Assistance will be declined. For example, where: 

• The assessment team determines that your situation is ongoing and unlikely to improve.
• You don’t give us enough information to make a proper assessment, 
• or you fail to respond to our request to provide additional data to enable us to make our assessment

Hardship Assistance options currently available 

• Reduced repayments: Paying even a small amount towards the interest owed, to reduce the amount owed at the end of the agreed time.
• Interest-only: Reducing your repayments to cover the interest due only. During this time your total loan amount will not decrease.
• Repayment deferral: Repayments may be deferred for an agreed length of time in exceptional circumstances. During this time interest and loan amount continue to accrue.  

Options at the end of Hardship Assistance

At the end of the agreed hardship period, you’ll need to return to your normal repayments. If you are still experiencing financial hardship, you may apply for an extension which will require further assessment and updated supporting documentation.

• Lump sum repayment: If you have the funds available,you can simply repay the arrears in a lump sum and get back to scheduled repayments.
• Payment plan: Bring the account up to date over an agreed length of time by repaying the arrears in instalments, on top of your normal monthly payment.
• Capitalisation: Subject to approval, add arrears amount into the principal balance of your loan to be repaid over the remaining loan term. Note, this will increase your monthly repayments and interest charges or require a loan term extension.

Applying for Hardship Assistance with us is easy. Choose the option that best suits your current situation and supply as much information as possible to help us to find a suitable solution to get you back on track as soon as possible.

Need support?

Simply fill out our quick online form here or download this form and email to hardship@bluestone.com.au

What happens next?

• We’ll assess your application as quickly as possible. Please be patient as it can take up to 7 days for us to assess and provide you with the outcome. 
• We may need to get in touch to request additional information or documentation. Please ensure you respond to avoid delays.

During the agreed Hardship Assistance period

• Normal repayments will pause while you have an active hardship arrangement. 
• If you have a reduced payment arrangement, you must meet the agreed payments to maintain your hardship arrangement. Not doing so will result in the agreement being cancelled, your credit rating may be impacted, and we may commence collections activity.
• Prior to the end expiry of your hardship period, we will contact you to get an update on your situation and to understand your intentions with the loan moving forward.