I wrote a Blog back earlier this year about all the new reporting that banks check on customers when applying for loans.
The moral of that Blog was to pay your bills on time, or suffer the consequences…
And they weren’t kidding…
We have had a client that has had their loan declined in recent times due to the minutest details and strange circumstances.
Let me paint a picture – They are existing clients with one of the majors and they have an investment loan, credit card and savings account all with the same bank. So they are loyal bank clients.
Being very diligent with their money, they put everything they earnt onto their home loan and left a small amount in their savings account to live off. Then when their loan repayment was due, they would redraw money from their home loan account and put it back into their savings account. The bank then direct debited their loan repayment from their savings account.
A small oversight saw their savings account overdrawn by $100 with a direct debit they forgot about.
So now, when they applied for a new loan, we obviously went with that same bank and the $100 overdrawn account sent a red flag to the lender.
Upon further digging, they then assumed that these clients were redrawing funds to simply make their loan repayment. Now this was true, but only because they were putting everything onto their home loan to save on their interest, but the lender did not see it this way.
Even though they had over $80,000 in their redraw.
It does beg the question as to why the bank allowed them to over draw a savings account in the first place? If there is no money in the account, then they shouldn’t be able to access credit. Were they ever approved for this credit? Was there an application? I think not…
There was also no practicality taken into account for this decision; it was a pure black and white policy that they adhered to. As a consequence, they lost that client and will now lose all their business in the near future.
And it’s this kind of stupidity that clients remember for life…
So what can you do to ensure you have everything up to scratch when you apply for a loan?
So, I guess the moral of the story is the same as my previous Blog – pay your bills on time, every time…