The COVID-19 crisis is affecting many people both in Australia and across the globe both in health and economic terms. Many Australians have lost their source of income or had their income significantly reduced. We’ve had many of our caravan loan customers reach out to us for information as to what relief is available from lenders in regard to caravan loan payments.
We are not in a position to provide specific directives on individual caravan loans and we advise anyone requiring assistance to visit contact their lender. We’ve compiled this general information as guidance.
Sourcing Caravan Loan Repayment Relief
- Most lenders have set-up a website or web pages within their main website which outline their COVID-19 support policies.
- We recommend you access these web pages as your first step.
- The site may/may not mention caravan loans or caravan finance specifically. You may have to click through to either personal loans or business loans for information.
- These sites usually have contact phone and email details so you can contact your lender to discuss your specific caravan loan.
- Remember, we’re all in this together and many people are seeking relief for their caravan loans and other loans and the lender phone lines are very busy.
- Contacting your lender via email is the preferred method. Ensure you include all the important details about your caravan loan so the lender can assess your specific requests quickly and respond to you. Include your customer name and account number; contact phone and email; state that you are requesting deferral of your caravan loan repayments due to COVID-19; detail how long you would like to defer your caravan loan payments for, ie 3 months, 6 months.
- Allow the bank or lender time to respond before you commence following up. Most lenders are offering 6 month deferrals and usually from the date the request was received. So ensure you register your request in writing, by email.
General Information
- As a finance broker, Jade Caravan Finance is accredited with a large number of banks and lenders. Under these current circumstances, individual lenders have put in place their own policies around repayment relief for caravan loans.
- We cannot report any broad-based, ‘blanket’ solutions that would encompass the entire lending sector.
- Different arrangements may be offered to business caravan finance customers as opposed to personal caravan loan customers. Ensure you are specific when you approach your lender by clearly stating if your loan is personal or business and if business, the size of your business in terms of turnover.
- When seeking repayment relief, you should understand the terminology being used around all support measures. Specifically, the difference between ‘deferred payments’ and ‘waived payments’.
- Deferring payments means taking a ‘payment holiday’. Putting off making payments for 3 months or more commonly, 6 months. The payments are still due to be paid. The deferment extends your loan term out by those many months.
- Interest may still be charged by the lender unless they specifically state that interest is ‘waived’ for the deferment period.
- A waiver or waived payments are payments that are forgiven, forgotten, or deleted. This usually not occurring with caravan loan types of finance. Waived fees and charges etc are usually only applied to some measures by governments and other authorities. We consider that it would be highly unlikely that a lender would waive any caravan loan repayment.
Lender Support Policies
In addition to the above general information, we have sourced links to information being provided by some banks and lenders in regard to relief for caravan loan payments. If your lender is not specifically mentioned below, go to their website and search for COVID-19 support.
WESTPAC
If you have a caravan loan or business caravan finance with Westpac, you should go to https://www.westpac.com.au/help/disaster-relief/ for their support measures.
ANZ
If you have a caravan loan or business caravan finance with ANZ, you should go to https://www.anz.com.au/support/covid-19/
COMMONWEALTH BANK
If you have a caravan loan or business caravan finance with CBA, you should go to https://www.commbank.com.au/latest/coronavirus.html?ei=hp-ban-cvp-default-coronavirus
MACQUARIE BANK
If you have a caravan loan or business caravan finance with Macquarie, you should go to https://www.macquarie.com.au/financial-assistance/coronavirus-support.html
Support from Government
The Australian Government has announced a number of stimulus and support measures for a large number of individuals and businesses. In addition, all state and territory governments and many local councils have introduced relief for the areas under their jurisdiction.
Ensure you investigate what you are entitled to as this may assist with making your caravan loan repayments without requesting deferring payments.
At Jade Caravan Finance we’ve moved to work from home arrangements but will be providing continuity of service throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED SHOULD BE USED AS A GUIDE ONLY. ALL INDIVIDUAL LOANS AND ARRANGEMENTS WITH SPECIFIC LENDERS SHOULD BE MADE DIRECTLY. JADE BOAT LOANS IS NOT IN A POSITION TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC ADVICE ON ANY SPECIFIC CARAVAN LOAN.
